Hong Kong announced today that the minimum wage for foreign domestic workers will increase to $4,990 a month, up from $4,870 currently, a 2.5 percent increase.
The food allowance for FDHs who are not provided free food by their employers is set at $1,236 per monthly.
All employment contracts signed after tomorrow, September 28th, will be subject to the new salary.
Immigration Department will still process FDH contracts signed before or today at the current wage of $4.870 per monthly, provided that the applications reach them before Friday, October 25.
The announcement was met with dismay by Asian Migrants Coordinating Body. They had pushed for a FDH minimum wage of $6.172.
AMCB said that the $120 wage hike with no additional allowance for food is a small relief to “the suffering” of migrant workers paid a “slave wages.”
AMCB said that “migrant domestic workers have been discriminated against again and excluded from (the provision of) better working conditions”.
The group said that if the minimum wage of $6,172 had been paid to them and their families, they would have lived more comfortably.
The government, however, stated that the MAW was determined by a well-established mechanism that took into account Hong Kong’s economic outlook, labor market conditions, and near-term economic forecast.
The statement said that “the Government has also reviewed and decided to maintain the current level of the food allowance, taking into consideration the relevant consumer price indexes.”
Source TheSubWebHK
