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LCQ2: Income of labour sector
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    Following is an oral reply by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, to a question by the Hon Margaret Ng on income of labour sector in the Legislative Council today (November 7):

Question:

     The Government has repeatedly stressed that it is closely monitoring the problems of poverty and low income of the labour sector.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether it has data on the lowest and median monthly salaries of people working in various low-income trades (such as catering, cleansing, security services and retailing, etc.) in the past five years; if not, the reasons for that;

(b) whether it has compared the income levels of such people and their living standards in the past five years; if not, the reasons for that; and

(c) of the policies, apart from the mandatory wage requirement for government service contracts and the "Wage Protection Movement", the Government had implemented in the past five years to improve the salary levels of such people; if not, the reasons for that?

Reply:

Madam President,

(a) The Census and Statistics Department conducts "Labour Earnings Survey (LES)" regularly and uses the data collected to compile the "Quarterly Report of Wage and Payroll Statistics", which is published in March, June, September and December each year.  For the catering, cleansing, security services and retail industries, the average monthly salaries of workers with relatively low income in the past five years were as follows:

(1) the salaries of "refreshment server" of Chinese restaurants in June 2002 and June 2007 were $5,307 and $5,514 respectively, which showed an increase of 3.9%;

(2) the salaries of "general cleaner" were $5,067 and $5,213 in the same period, showing an increase of 2.9%;

(3) the salary of "guard" also recorded a 2.0% increase in the same period, which stood at $6,954 and $7,094 respectively; and

(4) the salary of "sales clerk/shop assistant" in the retail industry also increased from $8,338 to $8,468 in the past five years. The rate of increase was 1.6%.

     Detailed information is at the Annex.

     As the LES is conducted by collecting figures on the average salary of individual occupation from the business establishments, we do not have information on the lowest and median salaries.

(b) As different people may have different definitions of living standard, it is very difficult for the Administration to define it subjectively.  Besides, as the living standard of different people are affected by many factors, including family size, health condition and composition of families members (such as the ratio of the working people or dependants) and so on, we believe that there is no simple way to measure the changes in living standards for the low-income workers from the selected industries in the past five years.

(c) The Administration has always been committed to promoting Hong Kong's sustainable economic development so that our citizens can share the fruit of our economic prosperity.

     The Administration is also committed to assisting all citizens, including the low-income workers and their dependants, to meet basic living requirements.  For example, in the area of housing, we have a long established public housing policy which subsidises low-income families who cannot afford private housing.  The Administration also provides a wide range of highly subsidised public services covering areas essential to the enrichment and well-being of our people, such as medical services and other social services.  Mechanisms are in place to ensure that low-income workers and their families can gain access to these services.  Low-income employees who are not earning enough to support themselves and their families can receive income support under the "low earnings" category of the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme.  Besides, with the provision of allowances and deductions in our salaries tax system, only around one-third of our working population pays salaries tax.

     Training and employment assistance are important measures to assist low-income workers to upgrade themselves and seek jobs.  Apart from promoting the mandatory wage requirement for government service contracts and the "Wage Protection Movement", we have launched in June this year the pilot "Transport Support Scheme", which was recommended by the Commission on Poverty.  This scheme aims at encouraging job-seekers and low-income workers living in selected remote districts and with financial difficulties to find jobs and work across districts.

     In addition, the Administration is committed to allocating considerable resources to promote education and training so as to ensure education and training opportunities for our citizens, and facilitate their upward mobility.  The Employees Retraining Board is also committed to providing retraining and employment services to low-income employees so as to assist them to acquire new skills or improve their occupational skills.

Ends/Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Issued at HKT 12:35

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