No plan to introduce ‘living wage’ apart from existing minimum wage, says Chris Sun

The government has no plan to introduce “living wage” or other salary baseline policies apart from the existing statutory minimum wage scheme set at HK$40 per hour, said Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han. 

The idea of “living wage” was proposed by lawmaker Kingsley Wong Kwok, who suggested the government adopt this as the income baseline for government outsourced workers so that these workers can make a decent living. 

Wong also called on the government to consider making “living wage” as one of the factors in determining the minimum wage level for grassroots workers to live a dignified life. 

His suggestions came as the Minimum Wage Commission is now conducting a study on how to enhance the review mechanism for the Statutory Minimum Wage level. 

In reply, Sun said the minimum wage, established under the Minimum Wage Ordinance, aims to provide a wage floor which forestalls excessively low wages and minimizes the loss of low-paid jobs without jeopardizing the city’s economic growth and competitiveness. 

“The government has no plan to change the policy objective of the minimum wage or to introduce ‘living wage’ besides the minimum wage,” said Sun. 

The labor minister added the enhanced government procurement regime implemented since April 2019 has been effective, and noted that the median hourly wages of non-skilled workers have increased by 49.9 percent during the 3.5-year period until September 2022. 

“The median hourly wage of non-skilled workers at HK$55 is also 37.5 percent higher than the current minimum wage at HK$40, or 18.8 percent higher than the market median wage,” Sun also said. 

Sun said the Minimum Wage Commission is conducting the second-stage consultation and will submit the study report to Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu by end-October this year. The government will carefully consider the commission’s recommendations, he said.