Hong Kong will implement its first minimum wage rate, set at HK$28 per hour, from next year, the Secretary for Labor and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said Wednesday.
The initial statutory minimum wage rate at 3.61 per hour in U.S dollar terms will come into force on May 1, 2011. The rate was higher than that demanded by business, and less than the HK$33 favored by trade unions.
Cheung said that the statutory minimum wage, which is totally new to Hong Kong, is intended to protect grassroots workers and ensure that the pay that they get is commensurate with the hours worked.
Regarding the wage rate, Chief Executive Donald Tsang said that it has been a subject of controversy and it is also a milestone in our protection of the rights of low-income workers.
The minimum wage ordinance notice 2010 will be published in the Gazette on November 12 and tabled at the Legislative Council on November 17.
About 314,600 or 11.3% of Hong Kong's employees will be effected by the change, with 61.4% being women staff, 25.3% employees aged 55 and above, and 18.8% part-time workers, the government's information service department said.
In July, Hong Kong's Legislative Council passed the Minimum Wage Bill without stipulating the actual wage and thereafter formed a committee to set the minimum rate.
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