Hong Kong NGO urges government to raise minimum wage, calls for annual review to keep up with inflation
- Consumer price index has soared close to 40 per cent in the past 12 years, according to Society for Community Organisation
- Ng Wai-tung says current practice of reviewing base pay once every two years was too favourable to management
A concern group has urged the government to raise Hong Kong’s minimum wage to at least HK$50 (US$6.37) per hour as it has remained unchanged for the last three years, adding that the base pay should be reviewed annually to keep up with inflation.
The Society for Community Organisation (SoCO) said that although the current minimum wage of HK$37.50 per hour marked an increase of 33.9 per cent since its introduction in 2011, the consumer price index had soared close to 40 per cent in the past 12 years.
“We believe the city’s minimum wage should be at least HK$50 per hour, so we can ensure that the minimum monthly income of citizens can be over 60 per cent of the median monthly one-person household expenditure of HK$16,000,” Ng Wai-tung, a community organiser at SoCO, said on Saturday.
“In the long term, we hope the minimum wage can be further increased to HK$58 per hour, so the minimum monthly income can be over 60 per cent of the median monthly one-person household income of around HK$18,000.”
The practice of reviewing the base pay once every two years was too favourable to management, Ng said. The current wage level was set in 2019 and has remained unchanged since then.
