Photo credit: Hong Kong free Press
Domestic workers called for an increase in their Minimum Allowable Wage from HK$5,100 to HK$6,172 at a rally outside the Labour Department on Friday.
Hong Kong Free Press reports that the Asian Migrants Coordinating Body (AMCB) also called for an increase in the monthly food allowance from HK$1,236 to HK$3,123. Employers must provide free meals or pay the food allowance set by the Labour Department for their domestic workers, which works out to around HK$41 per day.
“Increasing our wage[s] will ensure we can cope with the unending inflation in Hong Kong, which heavily impacts the majority of [domestic workers] who are striving to live decently and with dignity,” spokesperson Sringatin said, according to a Friday press release. Some Indonesians go by only one name.
“Since 200, the Minimum Allowable Wage has only increased from HK$3,670 per month to the current HK$5,100 – a cumulative increase of just 39% (HK$1,430) spanning 25 years. This is an incredibly low wage for a territory that proudly brands itself as “Asia’s World City,” she added.
The coalition, the city’s largest group of migrant worker unions and associations, said that domestic workers have provided “round-the-clock household and caregiving support for children and the elderly” for decades, enabling double-income households.
The group rejected claims from employer groups that wage hikes would trigger mass layoffs and pushed back on calls for a pay freeze. The AMCB said that the care services that domestic workers provide are “irreplaceable,” with some of their earnings recycled back into the local economy.
The AMCB also cited “job insecurity, excessively long working hours, heightened vulnerability to abuse due to mandatory live-in arrangement, and ongoing exploitation by erring recruitment agencies.”
By law, domestic workers must live with their employers – a situation advocacy groups argue can enable abuse.
