Hong Kong Inequality Report

Summary
Oxfam believes inequality breeds poverty. Extreme wealth disparity reflects the
fact that poverty cannot be effectively eradicated by economic development. As
the wealth gap continues to widen, inequality has continued to worsen.
According to Oxfam’s latest report titled ‘Reward Work, Not Wealth’, 82% of the
wealth created in 2017 went to the world’s richest 1%. The poorest 3.7 billion
people across the globe, however, did not share the fruits of economic growth 1.

During the decade, According to the Hong Kong Census Reports, Hong Kong’s
Gini coefficient rose from 0.533 in 2006 to 0.539 in 2016 , which is worse than
other developed economies ( e.g Singapore 0.417, United States 0.411, United
Kingdom 0.358, Australia 0.377, Canada 0.322). The median monthly
household income of the top decile is 44 times greater than that of the lowest
decile in 2016, which it was only 34 times in 2006. The number of poor
households has reached up to 530,000, of which 300,000 are working poor
households; further, over 1.3 million people live in poverty. In May 2018, the
total net worth of the wealthiest 21 mega-tycoons in Hong Kong amounted to
HK$1.83 trillion, which is equal to the Hong Kong government’s fiscal reserves.
Nonetheless, a profits tax at the rate of 16.5% paid by corporations run by these
mega-tycoons is still significantly lower than the average tax rates in the
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and G20
members (24.2% and 28% respectively). Beyond that, these tycoons receive at
least HK$23 billion from untaxed stock dividends.

Although wealth disparity has worsened, the government has accumulated a

budget surplus of over HK$690 billion over the past ten years; in fact, fiscal
reserves have now surpassed the HK$1.1 trillion mark. In the 2018/19 Budget,
the government’s recurrent expenditure is 14.4% of the GDP. However, this
figure is still lower than the rate during the severe acute respiratory syndrome
(SARS) period (15.7%) in 2003/04. In comparison to other OECD member
states such as Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and
New Zealand, Hong Kong has spent the least on public services like healthcare
and social welfare. The Hong Kong government employs a ‘conservative
budgeting principle’, which keeps the growth of the government’s expenditure
in line with general economic growth. Despite the fact that it has a tremendous
amount in fiscal reserves, the government has failed to allocate resources into
public services to help reduce inequality.

This phenomenon reflects the failure of the economic system; the rich have
gotten richer, while the poor – despite their hard work – have not been able to
share the fruits of economic growth. Currently, nearly 210,000 people live in
subdivided flats, and despite an almost full employment rate, 920,000 work but
remain poor. In 2016, almost 40% (37%, 114,467 households) of the 308,549
working poor households earned a monthly income that was lower than the
corresponding amount of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA).

1 P.8, https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/bp-reward-work-not-wealth-220118-en.pdf
1
Though minimum wage is reviewed every two years, the increments in which it
rises still falls behind the rate of inflation. Taking inflation into account, the
purchasing power of the current minimum wage (HK$34.5 per hour) is
equivalent to HK$26.8 in October 2010. Since 1997, the Hong Kong
government has allowed outsourced private organisations to offer public
services. Yet because of the ‘lowest bid wins’ principle where the cheapest
bidder wins, outsourced workers are not paid more than minimum wage, which
often leaves workers trapped in poverty. Oxfam believes this problem can be
addressed by promoting a living wage, which is a wage level that can fulfil the
basic necessities of living of workers and their families.

Furthermore, since wealth in Hong Kong is highly concentrated, the

marginalised – including women, children, elderly and ethnic minorities – easily
fall into poverty. The average income of females around the world is lower than
that of males, and the situation in Hong Kong is particularly severe. The labour
force participation rate of local women is low, which indicates that the problem
of gender inequality is more serious than imagined. As the supply of child care
services is in serious shortage, women from poor households can only take up
part-time jobs with short working hours in order to earn an income and take
care the family. However, most part-time jobs offer low wages, no insurance
and are odd jobs, which do not help alleviate poverty. Currently, there are over
150,000 people engage in odd jobs, and 60% of them are women.

As of 2016, over 390,000 elderly people – people aged 65 or above live in

poverty, meaning one in every three elderly persons lives in poverty. Though
Hong Kong has now adopted the Universal Retirement Protection Scheme with
four pillars, as per the World Bank’s suggested framework, there remain
loopholes in each pillar. Since companies can offset employees’ long service
payments and severance payments using their own pension funds when they
are dismissed or companies go out of business, companies seriously diminish
the money employees have accrued, which directly affects their retirement
protection.

According to the Population By-census, the number of non-taxpayers in Hong

Kong’s labour force has exceeded 1.5 million, which is nearly half of the labour
force (45%), and most of them live in poverty and are unable to support their
parents. For low-income senior citizens, it would be difficult to get by if they only
rely on voluntary savings when they retire.

Ethnic minorities are also a marginalised group in society. As many are often
not proficient in Chinese, they face a lot of problems in daily life, school, their
work and even applying for or using social services. The current poverty rate
among South Asians, who make up the largest proportion of ethnic minorities
in Hong Kong, is 23.0%, and one in every three South Asian child lives in
poverty. Education is an effective tool that helps eliminate inequalities and
empowers the weakest in community to move upward in society. However,
nearly 60% of schools with non-Chinese speaking students receive no
additional subsidy from the government to cater to the Chinese learning needs
of ethnic minority students. This hinders their speed of learning in comparison
to others.
2
The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of the United Nations (UN) puts
forward that each country should take action to achieve the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) before 2030 in order to eliminate every form of
poverty and inequality. Oxfam hopes that Hong Kong, being a part of the global
community, can work to achieve SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, and take more
progressive actions to reduce income disparity.

As such, Oxfam calls on the government to:

1) include the SDGs in its future development blueprint as part of a long-term

response to the social development needs of Hong Kong and the world;

2) adopt a ‘people-oriented’ approach for public finance and address social

issues by increasing public expenditure; Oxfam urges the government to
increase recurrent expenditure so that the recurrent expenditure to GDP
ratio returns to 15.7% – the same level of expenditure in 2003. The
expected GDP in the 2018/19 Budget is HK$2.8 trillion, the additional
recurrent expenditure is approximately HK$36.7 billion. Since introducing
new/modifying government policies requires planning, and new services
(such as increasing residential care places for the elderly) may need to
be implemented in phases, the additional recurrent expenditure can be
spent gradually over three years.

In the meantime, we hope the government will explore the possibility of

implementing a ‘participatory budgeting’ process when deciding on how
much it will spend in the coming year. This would allow the public to help
make decisions in this area through debate and participation. Further,
Oxfam believes the government should also:

⚫ review minimum wage annually, encourage employers to pay

employees a living wage, conduct a full review on the outsourcing
system of the government, amend the Employment Ordinance to
entitle odd job workers to statutory employment protection, and restart the
consultation and lawmaking processes for the right to collective
bargaining;

⚫ allocate more resources to pre-school learning, provide Chinese

language learning support to ethnic minority students so they can
become proficient in Chinese, and provide kindergartens with more
resources to teach non-Chinese speaking students;

⚫ increase the quota for occasional child care services and extend
service hours so that low-income households can return to the labour
market, and implement policies that facilitate the development of
local bazaars;

⚫ scrap the MPF offsetting mechanism, allow elderly persons in need

3
 to apply individually for CSSA, increase the Old Age Living Allowance
and increase recurrent expenditure on elderly caregiving services;

⚫ provide more support for interim social housing, and increase the
supply of public housing by speeding up the planning process and
increasing the public housing ratio via community planning and the
development of brownfield sites;

3) review the current taxation scheme under the principle of “affordable

users pay”, in order to take precaution for preparing for aging population;

4
Contents

1. Introduction ............................................................................................... 8
2. Research methodology ........................................................................... 10
3. Serious wealth disparity: Money in the hands of the few ........................ 11
4. Hong Kong: A wealthy city that is fiscally conservative........................... 13
5. Who are the victims of inequality? .......................................................... 19
5.1 Subdivided flat residents ................................................................... 19
5.2 Low-income workers ........................................................................ 23
5.3 Women in poverty ............................................................................. 30
5.4 Children in poverty ............................................................................ 38
5.5 Elderly in poverty .............................................................................. 43
5.6 Ethnic minorities ............................................................................... 47
Conclusion: Reverse extreme inequality by building a human economy ..... 53

5
List of Figures
FIGURE 1: MONTHLY HOUSEHOLD INCOME OF THE TOP AND LOWEST DECILES IN 2006 AND 2016 (%)
...................................................................................................................................................... 11
FIGURE 2: DIVIDEND INCOME OF THE TOP FIVE TYCOONS IN HONG KONG (HK$) ................................ 12
FIGURE 3: GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT (AT CURRENT MARKET PRICE) (HK$ MILLION) ........................ 14
FIGURE 4: RATIO OF RECURRENT EXPENDITURE TO HONG KONG GDP (%) ........................................... 14
FIGURE 5: COMPARISON OF SELECTED OECD MEMBERS’ TOTAL SPENDING ON HEALTHCARE AS A
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EXPENDITURE (%) ................................................................................... 15
FIGURE 6: COMPARISON OF SELECTED OECD MEMBERS’ TOTAL SPENDING ON SOCIAL WELFARE AS A
PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL PUBLIC EXPENDITURE (%) ....................................................................... 15
FIGURE 7: THE GINI COEFFICIENT IN SELECTED DEVELOPED AREAS (2015) ........................................... 16
FIGURE 8: THE STATUTORY CORPORATE TAX RATE IN DEVELOPED AREAS (%) ....................................... 16
FIGURE 9: ANNUAL PROFITS TAX AND ITS PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL REVENUE ........................................ 17
FIGURE 10: BREAKDOWN OF GOVERNMENT INCOME (HK$, MILLION) ................................................. 18
FIGURE 11: MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME, AND PRICE AND RENT INDEXES OF SMALL LIVING UNITS
(2007-2016)................................................................................................................................... 19
FIGURE 12: HOUSING EXPENSES AS A PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EXPENSES ............................................. 20
FIGURE 13: HOUSING EXPENSES AS A PERCENTAGE OF TOTAL EXPENSES IN DEVELOPED REGIONS ..... 20
FIGURE 14: NUMBER OF APPLICATIONS AND SUCCESSFUL ALLOCATIONS (2013-2017) ........................ 21
FIGURE 15: NUMBER OF OWNER-OCCUPIERS AND THE RATIO OF OWNER-OCCUPIERS TO ALL
HOUSEHOLDS (2007-2016) ........................................................................................................... 21
FIGURE 16: WORKING POOR HOUSEHOLDS THAT HAVE APPLIED FOR THE CSSA (2001-2016) ............. 24
FIGURE 17: MINIMUM HOURLY WAGE OF THE DEVELOPED AREAS (2016) (US$) .................................. 26
FIGURE 18: WORKING TIME NEEDED TO BUY A BIG MAC FROM MCDONALD’S USING MINIMUM WAGE
(2016) ............................................................................................................................................ 26
FIGURE 19: GENDER MEDIAN MONTHLY INCOME GAP IN DEVELOPED AREAS (%) ............................... 30
FIGURE 20: MEDIAN MONTHLY EMPLOYMENT EARNINGS OF EMPLOYED PERSONS (EXCLUDING
FOREIGN DOMESTIC HELPERS) BY GENDER .................................................................................. 31
FIGURE 21: LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATE OF POPULATION AGED 15-64 IN DEVELOPED
REGIONS BY GENDER (2016) (%) ................................................................................................... 32
FIGURE 22: EMPLOYMENT RATE OF WOMEN WITH CHILDREN AGED 2 OR BELOW (%) ........................ 33
FIGURE 23: NUMBER OF CHILDREN* LIVING IN POVERTY (%) ............................................................... 38
FIGURE 24: POVERTY RATE AMONG PEOPLE AGED 65 OR ABOVE ......................................................... 43
FIGURE 25: POVERTY RATE AMONG SOUTH ASIAN POPULATION .......................................................... 47
FIGURE 26: POVERTY RATE AMONG SOUTH ASIAN CHILDREN AS COMPARED TO POVERTY RATE
AMONG ETHNIC MINORITIES ........................................................................................................ 48
FIGURE 27: SCHOOL ATTENDANCE RATE OF ETHNIC MINORITIES AGED 19-24 ..................................... 49

6
List of Tables
TABLE 1: THE GOVERNMENT’S SHORT- TO MEDIUM-TERM LAND SUPPLY INITIATIVES ......................... 22
TABLE 2: CONSUMER PRICE INDEX A (FOOD, HOUSING AND TRANSPORTATION) AND AVERAGE INDEX
OF PAYROLL ................................................................................................................................... 25
TABLE 3: COMPOSITE CONSUMER PRICE INDEX, MINIMUM WAGE RATE AND CORRESPONDING
PURCHASING POWER .................................................................................................................... 25
TABLE 4: GENDER LABOUR FORCE PARTICIPATION RATE AND DIFFERENCES AMONG POPULATION AGED
15-64 IN DEVELOPED REGIONS (2016) .......................................................................................... 32
TABLE 5: COMPARISON OF STATUTORY EMPLOYEES’ BENEFITS PART-TIME EMPLOYEES HAVE IN ASIAN
REGIONS ........................................................................................................................................ 36
TABLE 6: RATIO OF CHILDREN AGED 0-2 TO CHILD CARE PLACES ........................................................... 39
TABLE 7: PLACE AND USAGE RATE OF AIDED FULL-DAY STANDALONE CHILD CARE CENTRES AND
KINDERGARTEN-CUM-CHILD CARE CENTRES FOR CHILDREN AGED 0-2 ....................................... 40
TABLE 8: RATIO OF FULL-DAY CHILD CARE SERVICE PLACES FOR CHILDREN AGED 0-2 TO CHILDREN
(DISTRICT) (2015-2016) ................................................................................................................. 41
TABLE 9: COMPARISON BETWEEN NUMBER OF PEOPLE IN LABOUR FORCE AND INCOME TAXPAYERS. 44
TABLE 10: NUMBER AND THE PERCENTAGE OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY SCHOOLS THAT HAVE
ADMITTED NCS STUDENTS IN 2017/18 ......................................................................................... 50
TABLE 11: NUMBER AND THE PERCENTAGE OF KINDERGARTENS THAT HAVE ADMITTED NCS STUDENTS
IN 2017/18 .................................................................................................................................... 50

7
1. Introduction
Being a worldwide development organisation that works on poverty, Oxfam has
been actively promoting the implementation of the SDGs around the world to
reduce poverty, and combat inequality and injustice. Over the years, Oxfam has
been promoting policies to relieve poverty through research, policy advocacy,
public education and supporting various poverty alleviation projects together
with its local partners.

Oxfam believes inequality breeds poverty, and that extreme wealth

accumulation indicates that economic development has failed to reduce
poverty. In fact, wealth disparity throughout the world has continued to grow,
and has led to ever-worsening inequality. Oxfam’s latest report ‘Reward Work,
Not Wealth’ states that, 82% of the wealth created in 2017 went to the world’s
richest 1%, and the poorest 3.7 billion people across the globe were unable to
share the fruits of economic growth 2 . According to the 2016 By-Census
conducted by the Census and Statistics Department, the results showed that
the Gini coefficient of Hong Kong has increased to 0.539. Not only has the
wealth gap widened, inequality in the city is even worse than other developed
economies (Singapore - 0.42, United States - 0.41, United Kingdom - 0.35,
Canada - 0.32), and its Gini coefficient is the highest among all developed
countries and regions.

Although the Hong Kong government has accumulated more than HK$690
billion in surplus over the past 10 years, making fiscal reserves surpass the
HK$1.1 trillion mark, its recurrent expenditure of GDP in 2017-18 was 14.4%,
which was lower than 15.7% during the SARS period in 2003. Even worse, the
Hong Kong government spent very little on healthcare and social welfare in
comparison to other OECD members such as Japan, South Korea, the United
Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, and New Zealand, though these are the most basic
services it can provide that can benefit the poor. The decline of expenditure on
low-income citizens has meant that existing services are unable to cater to the
needs of the community. This will thus continue to widen the wealth gap and
potentially even lead to social conflict. Furthermore, based on information from
the Census and Statistics Department, the current number of households living
in poverty stands at 530,000, of which 300,000 are working poor households,
and over 1.3 million people live in poverty.

This ever-widening wealth gap not only makes it impossible for millions of
people to escape poverty, but it means even more people will fall below the
poverty line. The trickle-down theory no longer works, and economic prosperity
only speeds up wealth accumulation for tycoons. Despite their hard work, low-
income workers’ incomes fail to catch up with inflation, and often are unable to
benefit from economic growth. Further, the underprivileged lack the chance for
equal development, and are thus often unable to make a better life for
themselves.

https://www.oxfam.org/sites/www.oxfam.org/files/file_attachments/bp-reward-work-not-wealth-220118-en.pdf
2

8
Among the 17 SDGs, many of them such as the 1st Goal (No Poverty), the 5th
(Gender Equality), the 8th (Decent Work and Economic Growth), the 10th
(Reduced Inequality) and the 11th (Sustainable Cities and Communities) aim to
tackle poverty and inequality. Oxfam fully supports the realisation of SDGs, and
has launched the ‘Even it Up’ campaign worldwide with the hope of obliging the
governments to take action to achieve the SDGs, and to develop human
economy. Oxfam urges the government to undertake fundamental reforms so
that Hong Kong’s economy serves not just the wealthy few, but all people.

Oxfam warns that if nations do not solve the problem of inequality and alleviate
poverty, more people will fall below the poverty line in the future. The UN’s ‘2030
Agenda for Sustainable Development’ puts forth that all nations should take
action before 2030 in order to achieve the SDGs to alleviate poverty and
inequality in all its forms. Oxfam hopes that Hong Kong, as a part of the global
community, can work to achieve SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities, and include
the SDGs in its future development blueprint as part of a long-term response to
the social development needs of Hong Kong and the world.

This year, unlike its poverty reports before, Oxfam Hong Kong (OHK) has put
together its first ‘Hong Kong Inequality Report’ to reveal the severity of
inequality in Hong Kong. The report looks at the problem from different angles,
including the gap between the rich and poor, housing, and public finance. OHK
also analyses the difficulties marginalised groups (such as residents of
subdivided flats, low-income workers, women, children, the elderly and ethnic
minorities) face, and offers suggestions and specific proposals to curb
inequality.

9
2. Research methodology
In this report, OHK analyses the wealth disparity in Hong Kong over the past
15 years (2001-2016) using data from the 2 Population Census (2001 and
2011) and 2 Population By-Census (2006 and 2016) issued by the Census and
Statistics Department, as well as other data. It also proposes relevant poverty
alleviation recommendations in accordance with the research results.

In this report, poor households are defined as households that earn a monthly
household income of less than half of the median monthly household income
of the corresponding household size (excluding foreign domestic helpers).

Working poor households are defined as households that earn a monthly

household income of less than half of the median monthly household income
(of the corresponding household size) that has at least one employed person
(excluding foreign domestic helpers).

10
3. Serious wealth disparity: Money in the
hands of the few
3.1 Wealth disparity in Hong Kong highest among all developed
countries and regions

In June 2017, the Census and Statistics Department announced Hong Kong’s
latest Gini coefficient, which stood at 0.539 and was an increase of 0.006
compared to 2006, and is the highest in 45 years. In comparison to five other
developed economies (Canada - 0.322, United Kingdom - 0.358, United States
- 0.411, Singapore - 0.4578 and Australia - 0.337), it is clear to see that wealth
disparity in Hong Kong is particularly severe.

3.2 Monthly income of top 10% of wealthy households is 44 times

that of poor households

In 2016, the median monthly household income (excluding foreign domestic

helpers) of the top decile was 43.9 times that of the lowest decile. That means,
one month’s income in the top decile was equal to the income of 3.7 years of
the lowest decile. In 2006, this disparity was 33.9 times. Over the past ten years,
despite the increase in income of poor households, the rate of growth of their
income is still far smaller than that of the top decile. As such, wealth disparity
has only worsened. The median monthly household income of the lowest decile
has slightly increased from HK$2,250 in 2006 to HK$2,560 in 2016, with a
growth of around 14%. Meanwhile, the median monthly household income of
the top decile (112,400) is 47% more than that in 2006; this indicates that th
gap between the rich and poor is growing larger.

Figure 1: Monthly household income of the top and lowest deciles in 2006 and 2016 (%)

60
% difference

43.9
40 33.9

20
2011 2016

Data source: Quarterly Report on General Household Survey

3.3 Wealth of top 21 tycoons in Hong Kong equivalent to total available

fiscal reserve of government

According to the data3 Forbes published in May 2018, the total value of the
assets of the 50 richest people in Hong Kong amounted to HK$2.47 trillion. As
of April 2018, however, the Hong Kong government’s fiscal reserves stood at

https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/#version:realtime_country:Hong%20Kong,
3

11
HK$1.83 trillion4, which means the assets of the top 50 tycoons is 1.35 times
that of Hong Kong’s reserves, and the assets of the top 21 tycoons is equal to
the government’s fiscal reserves. The top five tycoons are also some of the top
100 tycoons in the world5.

3.4 HK$23 billion in dividends for tycoons, zero taxes for the government

According to Forbes, the top five tycoons in Hong Kong received a total of
HK$23.6 billion in dividends in 2016-2017 (Figure 2). Without a dividend tax,
however, the Hong Kong government was unable to tax this income. In the long
run, this will only exacerbate wealth disparity and the inequality between the
poor and the rich.

Figure 2: Dividend income of the top five tycoons in Hong Kong (HK$)

Tycoon A 2,685,236,033.9 Total dividends:

23,640,474,366.9
Tycoon B 4,101,224,175.6

Tycoon C 1,276,984,548.1

Tycoon D 3,115,625,920.1

Tycoon E 12,461,403,689.3

0 5,000,000,000 10,000,000,000 15,000,000,000

Date source: Forbes

4
Exchange Fund Abridged Balance Sheet of Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Available fiscal reserve equals to the
sum of “Placements by Fiscal Reserves” and “Accumulated Surplus” on the Exchange Fund Abridged Balance
Sheet. http://www.hkma.gov.hk/media/chi/doc/key-information/press-release/2018/20180430c4a1.pdf
5
Forbes the World Billionaires, https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/list/#version:realtime_country:Hong%20Kong,
8 May 2018.
12
4. Hong Kong: A wealthy city that is
fiscally conservative
Hong Kong, being one of the world’s biggest financial centres alongside New
York and London, is not short on money, and even has a budget surplus. The
government, however, is fiscally conservative and limits public expenditure.
After SARS in 2003, the government implemented sharp cuts in its expenditure.
The symbolic recurrent expenditure as promised by the government to maintain
citizens’ welfare after the epidemic was kept at around 12-13% of the GDP.
However, public expenditure on areas such as healthcare and social welfare,
which would most benefit low-income citizens, has been much lower than other
developed areas. It is thus not surprising that Hong Kong’s Gini Coefficient
(0.539) is one of the highest compared to other developed areas.

Further, the Profits Tax (similar to overseas Corporate Income Tax) is only
16.5%, which is the lowest amongst the developed areas. Although the Profits
Tax accounts for 30% of the total tax revenue on average, and the percentage
is even higher than that of the Salaries Tax, Oxfam believes that if local
corporations did not divert their profits to tax havens to avoid paying tax, the
ratio of Profits Tax to total tax revenue should be reasonably higher. In fact,
corporations have greater obligation to pay taxes based on the ‘capacity to pay’
principle.

4.1 Current ratio of recurrent expenditures to GDP is lower than SARS

period

More and more empirical research in recent years has shown that a smaller
wealth gap and the appropriate reallocation of wealth would foster faster and
more sustainable economic growth. However, when people and organisations
across society asked for a notable increase in the government’s recurrent
expenditure on education, healthcare and social welfare, the then government
ignored it.

In 2003, when SARS struck Hong Kong, the Hong Kong economy took a big
hit, so the government adopted a deficit-reduction plan. Starting from 2004/05,
recurrent expenditures were cut for three consecutive years. Through the
government’s firm decision, the ratio of recurrent expenditures to GDP
dropped sharply from 15.7% in 2003/04 to 12.1% in 2007/08, making it
impossible for regular public services on education, medical and welfare to
improve despite full economic recovery after SARS. Following the epidemic,
the Financial Secretary only followed the book and failed to review recurrent
expenditure based on the economic environment at the time. According to the
Budget for 2018/19, the ratio of recurrent expenditures to GDP is 14.4%,
which is lower than that which was spent during SARS.

13
Figure 3: Gross domestic product (at current market price) (HK$ million)
3,000,000
2,662,600

2,000,000

1,373,083

1,000,000

Data source: Budget ,1997-2017

Figure 4: Ratio of recurrent expenditure to Hong Kong GDP (%)

15.7%
15.3%

14.6%
14.4%

14% 13.9%
13.5%13.5% 13.7%
13.3% 13.3% 13.3%
12.9%
12.6% 12.5% 12.6%12.5%
12.1%

10%

Data source: Budget ,1997-2017

4.2 Hong Kong’s expenditure ratio on public services is almost the

lowest compared to other OECD member

Although Hong Kong’s wealth disparity continues to worsen, the Hong Kong
government has accumulated over HK$690 billion in surplus over the past
decade, resulting in a shocking HK$1.1 trillion6 in fiscal reserves. The Hong
Kong government’s revenue is more stable than most might think, however, the
ratio of government recurrent expenditures on education, healthcare and social

6
Housing Reserve” of 77 billion is not included in the two groups of figures. In year 2014/15 and 2015/16, Former
Financial Secretary John Tsang Chun-wah did not follow the provisions as stated in the Public Finance Ordinance to
record the investment returns from fiscal reserves in the Public Accounts and put the amount in the newly established
Housing Reserve”. As of February 2017, the fund with accrued interest reached 77 billion. By including “Housing
Reserve” could reflect in a more accurate manner the government expenditures and current fiscal reserves level for
those two financial years.
14
welfare, which could most significantly benefit low-income citizens/households,
has continually decreased. In comparison to other OECD members such as
Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden and New Zealand,
Hong Kong has spent the least on public services like healthcare and social
welfare.

Hong Kong’s expenditure on public healthcare services accounted for a mere

14% of its total expenditure in 2018/19, placing itself just before the United
Kingdom (10.6%) which came in last compared to other OECD members. The
Hong Kong government spent even less on social welfare; it accounted for just
16.5% of its total public expenditure.

Figure 5: Comparison of selected OECD members’ total spending on healthcare as a percentage of total
expenditure (%)

30%

20% 24.2%
21.8%
19.2% 18.1% 18.0%
10% 16.3%
14.3%
10.6%
0%
Japan New South Canada Sweden Australia Hong United
Zealand Korea Kong Kingdom

Data source: OECD, Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics 2017

Figure 6: Comparison of selected OECD members’ total spending on social welfare as a percentage of
total public expenditure (%)

40%
38.9% 37.2%
32.5% 32.3% 31.7%
20% 28.0%
24.2%
14.8%
0%
Sweden Japan New Australia United South Canada Hong
Zealand Kingdom Korea Kong

Data source: OECD, Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics 2017

The figures indicated that the government’s low expenditure on public services
caused further inequality. Among the seven members of the OECD, the Gini
Coefficient of Hong Kong is the highest (0.539) and is higher than that of
Singapore (0.42) which came second7. In addition, based on the analysis of a
large-scale, 30-year piece of research that involved more than 150 economies ,
it is evident that a better allocation of public resources on healthcare, education

7
2016 Population By-census - Thematic Report：Household Income Distribution in Hong Kong,
http://www.bycensus2016.gov.hk/data/16BC_Income_Report.pdf, OECD, http://www.oecd.org/social/income-
distribution-database.htm. Except Hong Kong’s Gini Coefficient (2016), Singapore Ministry of Finance，
https://www.mof.gov.sg/Newsroom/Parliamentary-Replies/before-and-after-taxes-and-transfers---singapore-s-gini-
coefficient
15
and social welfare can reduce inequality8.

Figure 7: The Gini coefficient in selected developed areas (2015)

0.6
0.4 0.539
0.2 0.417 0.360 0.349 0.337 0.330 0.313 0.295 0.274
0

Data source: OECD, Hong Kong 2016 Population By-census

4.3 The government should no longer use competitiveness as reason

for low profits tax rate

The government has long proposed a low profits tax rate to ensure Hong Kong’s
competitiveness. Since 2008, the profits tax in Hong Kong has been kept
extremely low – 16.5%; this is way below the average tax rate (24.2%) of OECD
members9 and that of the G20 countries (28.0%)10. In 2017’s Policy Address,
the government further proposed to reduce the profits tax rate of any profit less
than HK$2 million to 8.5% to enhance economic competitiveness.

Figure 8: The statutory corporate tax rate in developed areas (%)

40%
38.9%

30.2% 30.0%
27.2%
20% 25.0% 24.2%
22.0% 21.2%
19.0%
17.0% 16.5%

0%

Data source: Tax Foundation

Despite the government’s narrative, does the enterprise income tax rate really
relate to the overall competitiveness of a country or region? When compared to
the most updated Global Competitive Index 2016/17 announced by the Global
Development Forum11 which details the income tax rate of each developed
country and area, it is clear that a low profits tax does not guarantee
competitiveness. Hong Kong ranks ninth in competitiveness internationally.

8
The period is from year 1970 to 2009. Please refer to J.Martinez-Vazquez, B.Moreno-Dodson and V.Vulovic (2012).
The Impact of Tax and Expenditure Policies on Income Distribution: Evidence from a large panel of countries.
International Center for Public Policy Working Paper 12/25.
9
https://files.taxfoundation.org/20170907092820/Tax-Foundation-FF559.pdf, p.6
10
Same as above
11
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/GCR2016-2017/05FullReport/TheGlobalCompetitivenessReport2016-
2017_FINAL.pdf
16
Some of the countries which have a higher income tax rate than Hong Kong,
however, such as Switzerland, Singapore, the United Kingdom, Sweden,
Netherlands, Japan, Germany and the Unites States, also ranked high in terms
of competitiveness.

4.4 Profits tax accounts for nearly 30% of the Treasury’s revenue

Although the low profits tax rate in Hong Kong is well-known around the globe,
the ratio of profits tax to the government’s total revenue is rather high. The
profits tax rate over the past five fiscal years (2010-2018) ranged from 24% to
31%, with an average of 26.7%; these taxes accounted for almost 30% of the
government’s total revenue.

Figure 9: Annual profits tax and its percentage of total revenue12

Average Annual Profits Tax︰126,401.9
Average Percentage of Total Revenue︰26.7%
200000 40
31.2
27.1 28.4 28.8
150000 24.8 26.5 24.3 22.1 30

100000 20

125,638 137,847 140,227 139,238 135,600

118,600 120,882
50000 93,183 10

0 0
2010/11 2011/12 2012/13 2013/14 2014/15 2015/16 2016/17 2017/18

Annual Profits Tax Percentage of Total Revenue

Data source: Census and Statistics Department, Inland Revenue Department

12Census and Statistics Department, Inland Revenue Department

17
Figure 10: Breakdown of Government income (HK$, million)13
100% 16,593 19,833 18,141 15,950 11,136 13,658 15,799 6,930 7,582 33,426 11,900
27,981
16,936 77,804 60,893
37,001 39,632 65,545 84,644 84,255
62,318 69,563
127,970 163,600
80%
104,013 117,078 115,967
95,272 92,277 98,971 107,435
120,192 121,543 132,855
60% 146,294 124,400
32,162 74,845 62,680
25,077 51,549 42,383 51,005 44,356 42,880 41,515
40% 41,159 61,899 115,000
64,164 62,658
42,152 56,273 54,545 60,040
41,065 44,901 48,177 64,297
61,900
20%
104,151 140,227
71,919 91,423 76,605 93,183 118,600 125,638 120,882 137,847 139,238 135,600

0%

Profits Tax Salaries Tax and Personal Assessment

Stamp Duty Total Operating Revenue
Land Premium Other Total Capital Revenue
Data source: Census and Statistics Department, Inland Revenue Department

Since society will continue to face serious wealth disparity and will need too
support an aging population in the future, the government should seriously
consider reforming the taxation system to increase its income and provide
sufficient public services in the long run.

On the other hand, there are worries that increasing the profits tax rate will
increase the chance of companies avoiding taxation. Oxfam Hong Kong
believes that the government’s lack of transparency around the regulation of
corporate taxation gives companies room to avoid taxation. Tax avoidance
mainly refers to multinational corporations using the tax differences between
different countries and transferring their profits to low-tax areas to reduce the
amount of tax they need to pay. Moreover, it is hard to know whether the
beneficial owners of enterprises have paid their fair share of tax without a
sufficient amount of transparency. Therefore, increasing tax transparency is
critical to stop tax avoidance.

Same as above
13

18
5. Who are the victims of inequality?

5.1 Subdivided flat residents

5.1.1 Rent increased by 80% in 10 years, and property prices more than
doubled

The unique land and housing problem in Hong Kong has further aggravated the
problem of wealth disparity. From 2007 to 201714, the price and rent of small
units increased by 273.9% and 100.1% respectively, while the median
household income had only increased 54.8%. If one purchased a property in
2007 at HK$2 million, the value of the property would have increased to HK$5.4
million in 2017. The income growth of average households, however, would
never be able to catch up with the increase in housing assets no matter how
hard they work.

Figure 11: Median household income, and price and rent indexes of small living units (2007-2017)

Median Household Income (HK$) Rent Index of Small Living Units

400 368.3 60,000
Price Index of Small Living Units 326.7
314.8
278.7 50,000
300 260.3
217.6 40,000
187.3
200
152.5
201.2 30,000
117.6 120.3 187.4 184.8
98.5 163.6 171.8
149.6
100 137.1
113.2 120.7 20,000
100.5 102.0 24,800 25,200 27,100
21,000 22,200 23,200
17,500 18,400 18,000 18,000 20,000
0 10,000
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Data source: Rate and Valuation Department and Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics

Apart from rising property prices, the rate of growth in rent prices is also higher
than that of the median household income, which leaves poor households with
no choice but to bear the brunt of high housing costs. As indicated in the figure
below, the ratio of housing expenses to total expenses has continued to
increase between 2004/05 and 2014/15, which was more than 10% higher than
that of other developed regions. The ever-increasing living costs have left poor
households in a struggle to make ends meet15; they can often only afford to live
in subdivided flats and suffer from poor living conditions. According to the
Census and Statistics Department’s latest survey (2016), there was a total of
92,700 subdivided flats that housed nearly 210,000 residents16; the number of

14
2017 4th quarter Quarterly Report on General Household Survey
15Census and Statistics Department, Results of the 2014/15 Household Expenditure Survey,
https://www.statistics.gov.hk/pub/B71608FB2016XXXXB0100.pdf
16
Census and Statistics Department, Thematic Report : Persons Living in Subdivided Units,
https://www.bycensus2016.gov.hk/data/16BC_SDU_report.pdf
19
subdivided flats and the number of residents has increased by 4.3% and 5%
respectively since 201517.

Figure 12: Housing expenses as a percentage of total expenses In 2016, there were
around 92,700
subdivided flats with
40% 209,700 residents in
36.0% total.
35%
33.0%
30.6%
30%
2004/05 2009/10 2014/15
Data source: Results of Household Expenditure Survey

Figure 13: Housing expenses as a percentage of total expenses in developed regions18

40%
36.0%
20% 26.0% 24.0% 22.0% 22.0% 20.0% 18.0%
15.0%
0% Hong Kong New United Canada Japan Australia United South
Zealand Kingdom States Korea

Data source: OECD

5.1.2 Construction of public housing has fallen behind schedule;

average waiting time has increased from 3 years to 5.3 years

Public rental housing has long been an effective way to reduce housing costs
and benefit most households in Hong Kong. Though the Hong Kong
government set a 10-year housing target in its Long-Term Housing Strategy in
2013 with the goal of supplying 280,000 public housing units (including
subsidised housing and public rental housing), the current construction
progress is way behind schedule19 and only 236,000 units are expected to be
provided in 2026-27. The current situation has deviated substantially from the
original plan.

With the slow progress, continual increase of public housing applications and
decreasing number of flats available, the average waiting time has lengthened
from 3 years in the past to 5.3 years. As such, it has become more difficult to
use public rental housing to improve poor households’ living standards.

17
Census and Statistics Department, Thematic Household Survey Report No. 60: Housing conditions of sub-divided

units in HK https://www.statistics.gov.hk/pub/B11302602016XXXXB0100.pdf
http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/housing/
18

http://www.thb.gov.hk/tc/policy/housing/policy/lths/LTHS_Annual_Progress_Report_2016.pdf
19

20
Figure 14: Number of applications and successful allocations (2013-2017)
200000 No. of
30%
No. of Percentage of
26.2% 申請宗數
applications
編配宗數
allocations 編配百分比
allocations

22.4%
150,500 147,300
137,900
100000 116,900 121,900 19.2% 20%
15.7%

13.9%
30,600 27,300 26,500 23,700 20,500
0 10%
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Data source: Hong Kong Housing Authority

5.1.3 Falling proportion of home owners and stagnant social mobility

on property ladder

Although home owners can benefit from rising property prices, those who
cannot afford to own property do not benefit at all. Poor households with no
assets can only continue to earn a living to survive, but hard work does not
easily improve their livelihoods. What is also worrying is that with the continued
increase in property prices, those who live in public housing have little hope of
affording private housing. As such, efforts to free up public housing units for
others who are in need by encouraging current tenants to buy private housing
have become futile. Instead, many now find it difficult to climb the housing
ladder and society has become further entrenched in inequality.

Figure 15: Number of owner-occupiers and the ratio of owner-occupiers to all households (2007-
2016)20

Ratio Home Owners (,000) All Domestic Households (,000)

3000 65%
2540.4
2 432.4 2 471.1 2 498.9
2334.3 2 359.3 2 386.2 2 407.3
2247.1 2277.4 2311.6

2000

1192.8 1200.9 1209.4 1211.8 1 256.3 1 240.8 1 230.3 1 238.7 1 243.4 1 258.3 1257.1
55%

53.1% 53.2%
1000 52.7% 52.3% 51.9% 52.0%
51.1% 50.9%
50.3% 50.4%
49.50%

0 45%
2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017
Data source: Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics

20
2017 4th quarter Quarterly Report on General Household Survey
21
5.1.4 Government’s poor land use planning has caused stagnation of
public housing supply

According to the Panel on Development's paper on Hong Kong’s land supply21,

the government’s short- to medium-term land supply initiatives shows that the
ratio of public housing to private housing in serval sites are not in line with the
6:4 ratio suggested in the Long Term Housing Strategy.

Table 1: The government’s short- to medium-term land supply initiatives

Sites Estimated Estimated flat Ratio of public
developable production housing to
land area (units) private
(ha) housing
Ex-Cha Kwo Ling 3.29 2,270 1:6
Kaoline Mine
Anderson Road Quarry 40 9,410 2:8
Ex-Lamma Quarry 20 1,900 4:6

Date source: Panel of Development, the Legislative Council

On the other hand, the construction progress of public housing is behind

schedule because the planning of some developable land has long been
delayed. The land stated in the abovementioned paper22, such as Diamond Hill
Comprehensive Development Area – formerly known as Tai Hom Village, which
was cleared back in 2001 – can accommodate 4,050 public housing units but
residents cannot move in until 2020 because of the delay. Further, in the
controversial public housing development at Wang Chau, the government has
suggested to build only 4,000 public housing units23 instead of the initial 17,000
on the 33 hectares of brownfield land. This shows that the government’s land
use planning is poor and its plans for public housing is far behind schedule; it
has thus been unable to meet the need for public housing.

Oxfam believes that to solve the above issues in the short term, the government
should refer to the experience of other countries and develop different forms of
community housing as transitional housing for grassroots while they wait for
public housing. In the long term, the government should make plans to develop
brownfield sites. To do this, the government should first speed up the planning
process and confirm the size of all public housing projects and increase the
ratio of public housing. Further, since the Task Force on Land Supply has
identified the tremendous developmental potential of brownfield sites 24 , the
government should proactively develop the sites at the same time. In fact, one
hectare of land can accommodate around 850 public housing units, providing
homes for 2,180 people25. If the government could accelerate the development
of brownfield sites, parts of the New Territories could already provide a good
number of homes for many families and reduce social inequality.

21
http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr16-17/chinese/panels/dev/papers/dev20170124cb1-461-1-c.pdf
22
Same as above
23
https://www.legco.gov.hk/research-publications/chinese/1617in01-public-housing-development-plan-at-wang-chau-
20161110-c.pdf
24
http://www.devb.gov.hk/filemanager/tc/content_1054/Paper_05_2017.pdf
25
Based on the statistics of Shui Tsuen O Estate, 11,000 public housing units were built on 13.3 hectares of land,
offering homes to 29,000 people.
22
5.2 Low-income workers
Oxfam has always believed that employment is an effective way of narrowing
the gap between rich and poor, and ultimately, alleviating poverty. However,
although Hong Kong is at full employment, the working poor population has
reached 920,000 people, reflecting the existence of numerous problems such
as insufficient remuneration and poor job security. Both the United Nations and
organisations like the International Labour Organization (ILO) are working hard
to achieve SDG 8: Decent Works. They are fighting for reasonable wages, safe
working environments, comprehensive work security, the promotion of gender
equality, collective bargaining and more for the workers.

Unfortunately, the actual wage in Hong Kong for the past decade has only
increased slightly, and minimum wage is insufficient to support employees’
basic needs; the increases in minimum wage have also been unable to catch
up with the inflation rate. Moreover, the MPF offsetting mechanism has yet to
be scrapped, workers still experience various kinds of exploitation, little legal
protection is available for casual workers, and legislation on the right to
collective bargaining is non-existent. Factors like these leave low-income
workers with little security and protection.

5.2.1 Number of working poor households stands at 300,000 while

over 920,000 people live below poverty line

According to the Census and Statistics Department’s 2016 By-census, there

were more than 300,000 working poor households, or 929,574 people, in 2016,
accounting for 70.4% of Hong Kong’s poor population. The poverty rate of
working households was 15.6% – a slight drop of 1.1% compared to 10 years
ago.

5.2.2 Almost 40% of working poor households’ income is lower than

average CSSA level

In 2016, amongst the 308,549 working poor households, the monthly income
of 114,467 households was lower than the average CSSA amount for
households with a corresponding number of residents. This accounts for
approximately 40% (37.0%) of the total number of working poor households.
However, out of these households, which are eligible to apply for CSSA, only
5,230 households, or 4.5%, have done so. This shows that most of the working
poor households are still hoping to escape poverty by working.

23
Figure 16: Working poor households that have applied for the CSSA (2001-2016)26
200,000 15%
12.6%
10.9%
150,000 164,381
10%
144,637
100,000 112,901 114,467

5.5% 4.5% 5%
50,000
18,257 12,319
9,008 5,230
0 0%
2001 2006 2011 2016

Number of working poor housholds which monthly income is lower than the
average CSSA amount (A)
Number of CSSA cases (Dec) (B)

Ratio of working poor households applying for the CSSA (B)/(A) (%)
Data source: Population Census of 2001, 2006, 2011 and 2016; Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics 2017

5.2.3 Real index of payroll over past decade only increased slightly to
12.3%

As stated in the above section, corporations should share the fruits of their
economic growth with their employees, thus giving employees a chance to
increase their incomes and reduce wealth disparity within society. According to
the date provided by the Census and Statistics Department, the nominal
average index of payroll of the employee’s monthly income has increased from
103.4 in 2008 to 153.5 in 201727 – an increase of 48.5%. However, the indices
of food, housing and transportation, which are included in Consumer Price
Index A, have increased by 22.6%, 40.2% and 39.5% respectively 28 . After
deducting the inflation calculated by the Composite Consumer Price Index, the
real index of payroll has only increased by 12.3% from 2008 to 201729. These
figures show that the increase in remuneration was mostly offset by inflation,
and the population’s purchasing power has only slightly increased compared to
10 years ago. Since employees are unable to share the fruits of economic
growth, many are unable to enhance their quality of living.

26
2001, 2011 Population Census and 2006, 2016 Population By-censes; 2017 Hong Kong Annual Digest of Statistics,
http://www.statistics.gov.hk/pub/B10100032017AN17B0100.pdf
27
https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp210_tc.jsp?tableID=022&ID=0&productType=8
28
https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp270_tc.jsp?productCode=B1060002
29
https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp210_tc.jsp?tableID=023&ID=0&productType=8
24
Table 2: Consumer Price Index A (food, housing and transportation) and average index of payroll

Consumer Price Index A Changes in nominal and real

(Oct 2014 to Sept 2015 = 100) index of payroll in selected
industries
(Q1 in 1999 = 100)
Food Housing Transportation Nominal Index of Real Index of
Payroll Payroll
Index Cumu Index Cum Index Cumu Index Cumul Index Cumul
lative ulativ lative ative ative
chang e chang chang change
e (%) chan e (%) e (%) (%)
ge
(%)
2008 86.9 / 75.5 / 74.6 / 103.4 / 107.8 /
2013 97.7 12.4 99.6 31.6 88.1 18.1 130.9 26.6 114.2 5.9
2017 106.5 22.6 106.1 40.2 104.1 39.5 153.5 48.5 121.1 12.3

Data source: Annual Report on the Consumer Price Index

5.2.4 Minimum wage is reviewed once every two years which lags
behind inflation and below CSSA level

The minimum wage was officially introduced in 2011. Although three

adjustments were made under the review that takes place once every two
years, the adjustment rate still lags behind the inflation rate in the same period.
According to the Census and Statistics Department, the Composite Consumer
Price Index was 82.9 (based on year 2014/15) at that time while it increased to
106.6 (based on year 2014/15) now (March 2018); it has increased by 28.6%
over this period. Based on this rate, the purchasing power of the current
minimum wage rate (HK$34.5 per hour) is only equivalent to HK$26.8 as of
October 2017; the corresponding purchasing power of the current minimum
wage is thus even lower than that in October 2010.

Table 3: Composite consumer price index, minimum wage rate and corresponding purchasing power

Composite Cumulative Minimum Corresponding

consumer price increase wage rate purchasing power
index rate (%) (HK$) (HK$)
(based on year (equivalent to Oct
2014/15) 2010)
October 2010 82.9 28 28
March 2018 106.6 28.6% 34.5 26.8
Data source: Census and Statistics Department

To motivate employees who are currently low paid to continue to work, the
minimum wage rate should not be lower than the current CSSA level. According
to the number of CSSA cases reported by the Social Welfare Department in
2015 and the actual CSSA payment as at 2018, the average monthly CSSA
payment for a two-person family is HK$9,61030. Based on the 2017 Report on
Annual Earnings and Hours Survey and assuming one working family member

30
https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr17-18/chinese/panels/ws/papers/ws20180212cb2-812-7-c.pdf
25
has to support one unemployed person on average, an elementary worker who
works 50.5 hours per week, six weeks a month – which is the median number
of working hours per week – the corresponding hourly rate should be: HK$9,610
/ 8.3 hours / 26 days = HK$44.5. This shows that the current minimum wage
rate is insufficient to support the basic needs of workers and their families, and
it is way below the CSSA level as well. This could possibly lower the incentive
of low-income workers to continue working in order to be relieved from poverty
in the long run.

When compared to other developed economies, the minimum wage in Hong

Kong is unfortunately very low, and employees’ purchasing power is relatively
low as well. For instance, the amount of time workers need to work to buy a Big
Mac from McDonald’s according to the Economist’s Big Mac Index – a piece of
research done every half a year that compares uses the minimum wage in 2016
as a base for calculation – workers in Hong Kong would need to work 36.7
minutes to earn enough to buy a hamburger. This is just slightly above South
Korea’s 43.7 minutes, and clearly demonstrates that those who earn minimum
wage’s purchasing power is extremely low.31。

Figure 17: Minimum hourly wage of the developed areas (2016) (US$)

Australia 13.0
New Zealand 10.5
United Kingdom 10.3
Germany 9.4
Canada 8.5
Japan 6.7
South Korea 5.3
Hong Kong 4.0
0 5 10 15
Data source: The Economist

Figure 18: Working time needed to buy a Big Mac from McDonald’s using minimum wage (2016)

South Korea 43.7

Hong Kong 36.7
Canada 32.5
Japan 31.0
Germany 26.6
New Zealand 24.1
United Kingdom 23.0
Australia 19.9
0 10 20 30 40 50
Data source: The Economist

31
https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=RMW;
https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp270_tc.jsp?tableID=052&ID=0&productType=8;
https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/so210_tc.jsp; http://www.economist.com/content/big-mac-index
26
5.2.5 Paying a living wage to support workers’ basic needs

As the minimum wage has been unable to support workers’ living expenses in
many countries, the living wage movement gradually started to appear in some
countries. A living wage is a wage rate that can support workers’ and their
families’ basic needs, e.g. affording a balanced diet, reasonable living space,
regular social life, basic education and medical needs. For employers, paying
the minimum wage ensures that employees’ wages are not too low, however,
they are not considering whether the wage rate is sufficient for living. A living
wage makes up for what the minimum wage lacks. The biggest difference
between the two is that the former is voluntary in nature while the latter one is
regulated by government legislation.

Amongst the living wage movements around the world, the movement has been
most successful in the United Kingdom. The living wage movement in the
United Kingdom began in 2001. Community groups in London back then
noticed that many of their residents were working two jobs and earning what
was equivalent to the minimum wage rate but still unable to support their basic
living needs. They had to work long hours as well, sacrificing their time to take
care of their families and lead healthy social lives. As a result, local groups and
trade unions, and human resources consultants discussed this with employers
who agreed with the concept of paying a living wage, and set up a platform to
promote the living wage.

A community group which had been promoting the living wage in the United
Kingdom set up the Living Wage Foundation in 2011 to further establish the
certification system and continue to promote the living wage in other places
within the United Kingdom (including Scotland, Ireland and Wales). Now, almost
4,000 employers are certified (including government departments, social
welfare organisations, public medical systems, service contractors,
multinational enterprises etc.) and are committed to paying a living wage to their
employees (including direct employees, contract staff and subcontractors). The
statutory minimum wage rate in the United Kingdom now is £7.5 per hour 32
(approximately HK$78). The minimum wage rate in London is £10.2 per hour
(approximately HK$105) while that of outside London is £8.5 per hour 33
(approximately HK$91).

Low-income households in Hong Kong, being one of the areas with the highest
living costs in the world, often face great pressure when it comes to living
expenses. With ever-increasing prices and rent, low-income workers who earn
minimum wage can only work longer hours to support their living expenses.
However, long working hours often negatively impact workers’ health and
families; therefore, paying workers a living wage offers a way out of this
dilemma.

https://www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates
32

https://www.livingwage.org.uk/calculation
33

27
5.2.6 Exploitation created by the government outsourcing system

The Hong Kong government has been outsourcing the provision of public
services to the private sector since 1997. Although service contractors must
disclose information like workers’ monthly salary level, working hours and wage
payment methods based on the Standard Employment Contract, non-skilled
contractual workers are usually paid minimum wage under the ‘lowest bid wins’
outsourcing system.

'Poverty. Full-time', a visual art exhibition, was held by Oxfam in January

2017 34 , with the aim to explore in detail the exploitations faced by the
contractual workers. Apart from receiving a relatively low salary, grassroots
contractual workers also have to deal with other problems such as hostile
working environments, inadequate work equipment, the inability to accumulate
years of working experience with the same duty and the same location, being
forced to sign false self-employment contracts by unscrupulous employers, and
unpaid severance payments and long service payments.

According to the government data, in year 2016/17, more than 20,000

contractual workers were hired by the Food and Environmental Hygiene
Department35and Leisure and Cultural Services Department36 alone, with more
than half of them engaged in work such as cleaning, security, gardening and
venue management. According to scholarly research, the monthly salary of a
non-outsourced workman II is approximately HK$12,000 while that of
outsourced workers of the same trade is only HK$7,000 to HK$8,000, leading
to a 30-40% difference in wage level.37 After the increase in minimum wage,
the working hours of some workers have been reduced by service contractors,
resulting in a decrease, instead of increase, of their actual wages.38

Take cleaners outsourced by the government as an example; a number of

researches have indicated that most of the outsourced cleaners are paid
minimum wage39. Furthermore, cleaners have to purchase work equipment at
their own expense, have unreasonable lunch hours and short rest breaks, and
even have to eat their meals in hostile environments such as refuse collection
points or cubicles inside public toilets40. Being the largest employer of Hong
Kong, it is disappointing to see that the government has failed to effectively
protect workers’ rights after outsourcing public services.

34
http://povertyfulltime.oxfam.org.hk
35
http://www.fehd.gov.hk/tc_chi/legco/2017-18/FHB(FE)360.pdf
36
https://www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/common/images/b5/doc/2017/HAB529-c.pdf
37
https://news.mingpao.com/pns/dailynews/web_tc/article/20160606/s00001/1465152761711
38
https://hk.news.yahoo.com/%E6%9C%80%E4%BD%8E%E5%B7%A5%E8%B3%87%E6%98%A8%E5%A2%9E-
%E9%83%A8%E5%88%86%E6%B8%85%E6%BD%94%E5%B7%A5%E5%8F%8D%E6%B8%9B%E8%96%AA-
231109729.html
39
https://www.hk01.com/%E6%B8%AF%E8%81%9E/116776/%E6%94%BF%E5%BA%9C%E6%B8%85%E6%BD%
94%E5%B7%A5%E5%BE%85%E9%81%87%E5%B7%AE-
%E5%83%85%E5%BE%97%E6%9C%80%E4%BD%8E%E5%B7%A5%E8%B3%87-
%E5%9C%98%E9%AB%94%E5%80%A1%E6%AA%A2%E8%A8%8E%E5%A4%96%E5%88%A4%E5%88%B6%E
5%BA%A6
40
https://www.hk01.com/%E6%B8%AF%E8%81%9E/111559/%E6%B8%85%E6%BD%94%E5%B7%A5%E7%9A%8
45%E5%80%8B%E6%82%B2%E6%AD%8C-
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%E5%9D%90%E4%B8%8B%E4%BC%91%E6%81%AF%E7%94%9F%E6%80%95%E8%A2%AB%E6%8A%95%E
8%A8%B4
28
The inter-bureaux/departmental working group set up by the Secretary for
Labour and Welfare is exploring options to improve the government outsourcing
system to enhance the protection of workers, and ensure reasonable
employment terms and conditions as well as labour benefits for non-skilled
employees. The proposal is expected to be completed by the third quarter of
this year. Oxfam expects the committee to better understand and discuss the
problem constructively, and to improve the lives of low-income workers.

5.2.7 Institute statutory collective bargaining right to protect the rights

of employees and employers

According to information from the ILO, 46 countries including Belgium, Finland,

Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Switzerland and Sweden have signed the
Collective Bargaining Convention to safeguard the collective bargaining right of
workers.41

The then Legislative Council passed the Employee’s Rights to Representation,

Consultation and Collective Bargaining Bill in June 1997 to protect the collective
bargaining right of workers. However, relevant legislation was repealed by the
Provisional Legislative Council on 29 October of the same year. No actions
were taken since in this respect; the undermined rights of workers has led to a
significant drop in bargaining power with employers, which is mainly attributable
to inequality.

However, it is often found in Hong Kong that workers join hands to fight with
their employers for better benefits. Worker unions of some corporates (e.g.
Cathay Pacific Airways Flight Attendants Union, Swire Beverages (Hong Kong)
Employees General Union) play a crucial role and act on behalf of the
employees in the negotiation against employers and have succeeded in
improving the remuneration packages 42 , as well as opposing the
implementation of the outsourcing system 43 etc. Without the protection of
collective bargaining rights, employees can only initiate labour disputes to force
employers to return to the negotiation table when they can no longer stand their
working environments and arrangements. Apart from bringing equilateral
bargaining rights to both employees and employers, the institution of a statutory
collective bargaining right also lowers the chance of employers’ financial loss
caused by strikes and disputes. It also helps to foster better labour relations,
and reduces inequality, resulting in a win-win situation.

41
http://www.ilo.org/dyn/normlex/en/f?p=NORMLEXPUB:11300:0::NO::P11300_INSTRUMENT_ID:312299
42
https://hk.news.appledaily.com/local/daily/article/20171104/20203933
43
http://www.hkctu.org.hk/cms/article.jsp?article_id=892&cat_id=8
29
5.3 Women in poverty
In recent years, the majority of wealth has fallen in a small number of hands.
As a result, societies and economies have become more unequal, and females
often feel the burn more than men. Nowadays, the average income of females
around the globe is lower than that of males. With the gender wage gap in Hong
Kong being larger than that of most developed areas, as well as the low local
female labour force participation rate, gender equality in the territory is worse
than most think. The situation is found to be more severe amongst women in
poverty. Their labour force participation rate only accounts for 20%, which is
30% lower than that of women in general households. Women in poverty
generally cannot work in society because of their family obligations or they can
only work part-time jobs. As such, many of them take up casual jobs that pay
minimum wage and offer little protection, which keep them in the cycle of
poverty.

5.3.1 The gender wage gap in the world and Hong Kong is 14.1% and over
20% respectively

According to the latest data announced in year 2012-16 by the OECD44, the
global average income of females is lower than that of males and the global
gender median monthly income gap is 14.1% while that of Hong is 22.2%45 as
of 2016. In comparison, Hong Kong has a much higher gender wage gap than
developed areas such as Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New
Zealand. The gap is just slightly lower than that of South Korea (36.7%).

Figure 19: Gender median monthly income gap in developed areas (%)
40
36.7

20
22.2
18.2 16.8
14.3 14.1
7.8
0
South Korea Hong Kong Canada United Australia OECD’s New Zealand
Kingdom median
Data source: OECD

In addition, upon reviewing the data of gender employment earnings over the
past 15 years, it is evident that the gap is becoming increasingly wider, and has
grown significantly from 16.7% in 2001 to 22.2% in 201646, the gap is widened
by 1/3.

44
OECD (2017), Gender wage gap (indicator). doi: 10.1787/7cee77aa-en (Accessed on 23 November 2017). Wage
gap means the rate of median monthly earnings difference between two genders over male’s median monthly earnings.
The data are specified for full-time and self-employed employees.
45
http://www.statistics.gov.hk/pub/B11303032017AN17B0100.pdf
46
Women and Men in Hong Kong - Key Statistics, P.283, Table 5.8A Median monthly employment earnings of
employed persons (excluding foreign domestic helpers) by age group and sex,
http://www.statistics.gov.hk/pub/B11303032017AN17B0100.pdf
30
Figure 20: Median monthly employment earnings of employed persons (excluding foreign domestic
helpers) by gender47

Male Female
20,000

18,000 22.2%

16.7% 14,000
10,000 12,000
10,000

0
2001 2016

Data source: Report on Annual Earnings and Hours Survey

5.3.2 Labour force participation rate of females in Hong Kong lowest

among developed countries

The disadvantaged economic status of women is not only reflected in the wage
gap; the majority of people around the world still believe that females should
take more responsibility for housekeeping, and taking care of children and the
elderly at home than males, hence women’s labour force participation rate is
lower than that of men.

In 2016, the female labour force participation rates of Hong Kong and all
developed countries were lower than that of males. The female labour force
participation rate in Hong Kong then was 63.5%, one of the lowest in developed
countries and regions. It is only higher than that in South Korea (55.9%) 48.

Census and Statistics Department

47

https://stats.oecd.org; http://www.statistics.gov.hk/pub/B11303032017AN17B0100.pdf
48

31
Figure 21: Labour force participation rate of population aged 15-64 in developed regions by gender
(2016) (%)49

100
Male Female

85.0 84.1 83.3 82.6 82.5 81.5

79.8 79.9
16.4% 76.4
73.7 74.4
71.9 70.9
66.4
63.5

50 55.9

0
Japan Sweden New ZealandUnited Kingdom Australia Canada Hong Kong South Korea

Date source: OECD

Table 4: Gender labour force participation rate and differences among population aged 15-64 in
developed regions (2016) (%)50

Male Female Difference

South Korea 76.4 55.9 20.5
Hong Kong 79.9 63.5 16.4
Japan 85.0 66.4 18.6
Australia 82.5 70.8 11.7
United Kingdom 82.6 71.9 10.7
New Zealand 83.3 73.7 9.6
Canada 81.5 74.4 7.1
Sweden 84.1 79.8 4.3

Date source: International Labour Organization

Comparing the differences in the male and female labour force participation
rate, the difference in Sweden, where gender equality is highly valued, is a mere
4.3% while that in Hong Kong is 16.4%. Although the difference in Hong Kong
is lower than that of South Korea and Japan, it is still higher than most
developed areas.

49
International Labour Organization, 2016
50
International Labour Organization, 2016
32
5.3.3 Less than 20% of women in poverty able to work

The labour force participation rate among women in poverty is only 19.8%,
which is 31.4 percent points lower than that in general households (51.2%).

The female labour force participation rate further drops to 19% if there are
children aged two or below in poor households. On the contrary, the female
labour force participation rate remains at 58%, which is 39 percent points higher
than that of women in poverty, for overall households with children aged two or
below. This indicates that women in poor households cannot work in society
because they have to take care of their family, resulting in a relatively lower
labour force participation rate for these households compared to the average
household.

Figure 22: Employment rate of women with children aged 2 or below (%)

Average % of Women Women in poverty

58.0%
2016
19.0%

57.7%
2011
13.6%

56.5%
2006
13.3%

53.1%
2001
11.4%

0% 20% 40% 60%

Data source: Census and Statistics Department

33
5.3.4 Of the 150,000 casual workers in Hong Kong, 60% are women

Females, especially those in poverty, are usually

unable to work because of their family burdens, or
can only work part-time jobs. This limits their
career choices, and a lot of them end up taking up Take care of family
Health issues/ old age

casual work that only pay minimum wage and

offer little to no protection.

Casual work is work where workers are not

employed under a continuous contract of Unable to find
employment. According to the Employment Full-time job with low salary

Ordinance, being employed under a continuous full-time jobs

contract refers to an employee who has been

employed continuously by the same employer for four weeks or more, with at
least 18 working hours per week. His/her contract is thus a continuous contract.
An employee must be employed under a continuous contract and fulfill the
related requirements as stipulated in the Ordinance to be eligible for the
employee’s benefits other than the basic protections such as rest days,
statutory holidays, annual leaves, paid maternity leaves, sickness allowance,
severance payment and long service payment etc. Casual workers are also
known as non-418 employees, as they work continuously for the same
employer for fewer than four weeks and/or fewer than 18 working hours per
week.

According to the data collected by the Census and Statistics Department, the
number of people engaged in casual work in the private sector was 149,800 in
2016, showing a 16.4%51 increase from 2001. Among them, 89,100 people are
female, accounting for 59.5% of all casual workers; the rate is higher than
57.2% in 2014.

5.3.5 Over 80% of casual workers lack labour protection

Oxfam’s Research on Low-Income Casual Work in Hong Kong (2017) revealed

that over 80% of casual workers work without labour protection. Many were not
entitled to or did not receive sick leave, payment in lieu of notice, pay on
statutory holidays, annual leave, long service payments, severance payments
or end of year payment. As stipulated by law, it is mandatory for all employers
to purchase compensation insurance 52 and arrange MPF schemes for
employees53. However, up to 78% and 75% of interviewees indicated that they
did not have insurance and MPF in place respectively. In fact, this is highly
related to labour relations. If employees are forced to be ‘self-employed’,
employers will no longer need to provide work injury compensation or MPF

51
Census and Statistics Department. 2012-2016. ‘Report on Annual Earnings and Hours Survey’
52
As stipulated in the Employee’s Compensation Ordinance of Hong Kong, all employers must purchase employees'
compensation insurance for employees regardless of the length of contract period or working hours, full time or part
time, regular or temporary.
53
The law stipulates that employers must arrange MPF scheme for part-time employees employed for 60 days or
above regardless of his/her actual working days or hours.
34
contributions despite the existing labour relation between the employers and
employees.

Oxfam thus suggests the government to redefine and relax the meaning of 418,
so that employees can be protected under Labour Ordinance as long as they
work 72 hours per month. The government should also draw up a timetable for
legislation to better protect casual workers. The administration should also
study Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and other affluent countries’
experience of using providing employment benefits pro-rata so that women
from poor households are provided with basic labour protection. Moreover, the
government should educate employers and employees on the Labour
Ordinance. The Labour Department also needs to carry out more rigorous
inspections and prosecute employers if they are not willing to take out insurance
against injuries at work or evade the responsibility of making MPF contributions
to curb the exploitation of employees.

35
Table 5: Comparison of statutory employee benefits part-time employees have in Asian regions54
Japan South Korea Singapore Taiwan Hong Kong
Definition of Fewer working Fewer working 35 or fewer No recognised ‘418’ working
part-time hours than full- hours than full- working hours definition hours
employee time time per week
employees per employees per
week week
Wage 
   
protection
Paid rest days    ×
15
working hours Calculated pro-
Paid annual
 or above per rata after three  ×
leave week months of
employment
Paid statutory ×
×   
holidays
Paid sick ×
× ×  
leave
Paid ×
maternity    
leave
Paid paternity ×
×   
leave
Dismissal and ×
Calculated pro-
severance   
rata
protection

Data Source: Panel on Manpower (the Legislative Council)

5.3.6 The absence of an integrated policy on bazaars

According to the Commission on Poverty’s’ Hong Kong Poverty Report 2016’,

the largest proportion of people living in poverty were found mainly in five
districts: Sham Shui Po, Kwun Tong, Kwai Ching, North District and Yuen Long;
the poverty rates in these areas were 16.8%,16.2%,16.4%,18.7% and 16.8%
respectively, and were generally higher than the average poverty rate in Hong
Kong (16.3%). In addition, the 2016 Population By-census showed that the
women’s labour force participation rate in these districts was lower than the
average rate in Hong Kong (54.4%): 51.3% in Kwun Tong, 52.1% in Kwai Ching,
49.4% in North District and 51.7% in Yuen Long. Only Sham Shui Po, at 54.5%,
had a higher than average rate. In these areas, low-income families face a lot
of pressure when it comes to taking care of their families. Women are unable

Research Office of Legislative Council Secretariat. May 2017 Review of employment benefits under continuous
54

contract in Hong Kong

36
to work full-time or go out to work because they often need to take care of young
children. However, there is a lack of work in their districts that can
accommodate their family responsibilities. As such, the problem of poverty has
only deteriorated.

In the Carrie Lam’s election manifesto, she mentioned developing district

economies through, for example, studies on the establishment of special
bazaars in various districts, but thus far, no practical measures have been
implemented by the government. Relevant polices are also often criticised as
there are too many hurdles need to overcome to make it a reality. Civil society
organisations often need to go through complicated and long processes to
organise a bazaar, since the application involves different government
departments and bureaus, like Lands Department, Food and Health Bureau,
district councils and Leisure and Cultural Services Department, but there has
been a lack of coordination between them, which has caused much confusion.

Bazaars not only create business opportunities for low-income families, but also
enable women to support their families, relieve economic pressure and escape
poverty. The government should thus relax existing policies, and ensure better
communication among the various departments and bureaus involved in the
application process.

37
5.4 Children in poverty
In 2016, there are around 252,000 children living below the poverty line in Hong
Kong and the poverty rate among them stands at 25.2%, meaning one in every
four children live in poverty.

Figure 23: Number of children* living in poverty (%)

(*children are people aged below 18.)

People aged below 18

2,000,000 People aged below 18 living in poverty 50%
Poverty rate
40%
1,500,000 23.6% 25.6% 25.2% 25.2%

1,361,598
30%
1,199,043
1,000,000 1,065,069
1,001,047
20%

500,000
10%
321,011 306,548 268,357 252,150
0 0%
2001 2006 2011 2016
Date source: Census and Statistics Department

Children are the greatest asset in society and the pillars of Hong Kong’s future.
Hong Kong will ultimately be the largest beneficiary if the government allocates
more resources on child services. Doing this will also help reduce inter-
generational poverty. Currently, some women who live in poverty cannot afford
foreign or local domestic helpers, so they have to take care of young children
on their own and are unable to work. Government child care services, however,
are in serious shortage, especially child care services for children aged 0-2. In
2016, on average, only 1 in 148 children aged 0-2 received an aided full-day
child care service place. The situation in some districts, particularly the Islands,
Tai Po, Sai Kung, Kwai Tsing and Wong Tai Sin, is even worse. Women can
only give up the idea of working since they have to take care of their young
children, which indirectly causes the children to continue to live in poverty, thus
creating a vicious cycle.

5.4.1 Serious shortage of child care services

In 2016, there were a mere 1,103 aided full-day child care service places for 0-
to 2-year-old children, meaning only one in 148 child of this age had access
to government child care services.

38
Table 6: Ratio of children aged 0-2 to child care places
Full-day child care places Population of children (A):(B) ratio
for children aged 0-2 in aged 2 or below in Hong
Hong Kong in 201655 (A) Kong in 2016 (B)
1,103 162,77956 1:148
Data source: Census and Statistics Department, Budget Question

Currently, child care services for children aged 0-2 are mainly provided by
aided standalone child care centres (formerly known as day care centres) and
some kindergarten-cum-child care centres. Over the last decade, the number
of full-day child care service places for aided standalone child care centres
has remained at around 700 with a consistently high usage rate (the average
usage rate has basically remained at 100% for the last five years). In addition,
some kindergarten-cum childcare centres provide over 300 full-day child care
places for children aged 0-2. Clearly, since 2010, except for some districts
(e.g. Eastern District) that had remaining places, the usage rates in other
districts have been close to 100%.

According to the 2017 Policy Address, the government will add a total of
approximately 300 aided full-day standalone child care centre places57 in the
North, Kwun Tong, Kwai Tsing and Shatin Districts in the year 2018/19, which
is a huge breakthrough in terms of providing more places. However,
considering the number of children in Hong Kong, the supply is still insufficient.
For this reason, the government should not adopt a piecemeal approach when
dealing with the shortage of child care service places.

55
2015-2016 Total number of full-day places of aided standalone child centres and kindergarten-cum-child care
centres: 736+367=1103
56
2016 Population By-census, Census and Statistics Department.
57
136th item of 2017 Policy Address, https://www.policyaddress.gov.hk/2017/chi/policy_ch04.html
39
Table 7: Place and usage rate of aided full-day standalone child care centres and kindergarten-cum-
child care centres for children aged 0-2

Financial Aided standalone Average Full-day places for Average usage

year child care centre usage rate kindergarten- rate
places (full-day cum-child care
only)58 centres59
2010-2011 690 98% 339 75%
2011-2012 690 99% 341 76%
2012-2013 690 100% 353 79%
2013-2014 690 100% 341 79%
(most of the
remaining
places are in
the Eastern/
Wan Chai
District)
2014-2015 722 99% 341 77%
(most of the
remaining
places are in
the Eastern
District)
2015-2016 736 100% 367 76%
(most of the
remaining
places are in
the Eastern
District)
2016-2017 738 (revised
estimated figure)
Data Source: Census and Statistics Department, Budget Question

5.4.2 Severely uneven distribution of child care places across districts

Child care service places for children aged 0-2 aided by the government are
disproportionate to the child population. The rates in Tai Po (1:437), Kwai
Chung (1:359), Sai Kung (1:314) and Wong Tai Sin (1:260) are particularly
alarming. The Islands District have a completely lack of standalone child care
centre and kindergarten-cum-child care centre places.

The Planning Department’s Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines

indicates that most public facilities are planned based on the proportion of
population in need of those facilities. The previous government also stipulated
that there should be one child care centre for children aged 0-6 set in each
community of 20,000 people. Right now, the number is set by the government
depending on the estimated demand, social and economic situation, regional
characteristics and other child support services provided in the particular
region 60 . This has caused a severe shortage of child care centres in some
58
2010-2012 http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr12-13/chinese/fc/fc/w_q/lwb-ww-c.pd 16th Section LWB(W) - P.868
2012-13 https://www.budget.gov.hk/2014/chi/pdf/chead170.pdf
2013-14 https://www.budget.gov.hk/2015/chi/pdf/chead170.pdf
2014-2015 https://www.budget.gov.hk/2016/chi/pdf/chead170.pdf
2015-2017 https://www.budget.gov.hk/2017/chi/pdf/chead170.pdf
59
2010-2013 http://gia.info.gov.hk/general/201311/06/P201311060524_0524_119972.pdf
2013-2016 http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr15-16/chinese/fc/fc/w_q/lwb-ww-c.pdf 20th Section LWB(WW) - P.1655
60
Hong Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines, P.11,
40
regions.

In the past few years, quite a number of young couples have moved and settled
in new development areas, but these regions are in shortage of chid care
services. For example, there are no full-day standalone child care centres in
Tseung Kwan O of the Sai Kung District. While in Tung Chung of the Islands
District, no full-day standalone child care centres or kindergarten-cum-child
care centre places are provided at all. Although many children reside in public
housing in these new development areas, without child care services, low-
income families would have to spend time on child care and not being able to
work in the society, leading to the continuance of poverty.

Table 8: Ratio of full-day child care service places for children aged 0-2 to child population in each
district (2015-2016)

Districts/Places No. of places No of places No. of Population of Ratio

at child care at Full-day children aged
centres61 Kindergarten child care 2 or below
and child service (2016)63
care centre62 centres
Central and 48 0 48 4,345 1:91
Western
Eastern 64 60 124 12,234 1:99
Islands 0 0 0 4,199 No
such
service
Kowloon City 64 32 96 9,618 1:100
Kwai Ching 32 0 32 11,494 1:359
Kwun Tong 0 72 72 14,335 1:199
North 48 0 48 7,531 1:157
Sai Kung 0 36 36 11,318 1:314
Shatin 70 0 70 13,815 1:197
Sham Shui Po 62 16 78 10,133 1:130
Southern 0 30 30 6,405 1:214
Tai Po 0 14 14 6,115 1:437
Tsuen Wan 76 24 100 7,492 1:75
Tuen Mun 64 0 64 10,187 1:159
Wan Chai 48 32 80 3,122 1:39
Wong Tai Sin 0 31 31 8,051 1:260
Yau Tsim Mong 96 0 96 7,461 1:78
Yuen Long 64 20 84 14,924 1:178
Total 736 367 1,103 162,779 1:148

Data Source: Census and Statistics Department, Budget Question

http://www.pland.gov.hk/pland_tc/tech_doc/hkpsg/full/index.htm
61
Financial Committee’s Examination of Estimates of Expenditure 2017-18, 19th Section LWB(WW) - P.388, places
and utilisation rate of aided standalone child care centre and others ( Apr-Dec 2016), http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr16-
17/chinese/fc/fc/w_q/lwb-ww-c.pdf
62
Financial Committee’s Examination of Estimates of Expenditure 2016-17, 20th Section LWB(WW) - P.1655, Total
number of places and utilised places of full-day services by kindergarten-cum-child care service,
http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr15-16/chinese/fc/fc/w_q/lwb-ww-c.pdf
63
Census and Statistics Department, 2016 Population by-census
41
5.4.3 Child care service lacks waiting indicators and criteria

Parents have to wait for a long period of time because there are inadequate
places for aided full-day child care centres. As the Social Welfare Department
has no performance pledge and waiting criteria, record of information such as
applicants’ application numbers, or the waiting time for various child care
services (including full-day standalone child care centre and kindergarten-cum-
child care centre) 64 , parents are unable to make plans on which child care
centre they can send their children to. As such, it is commonplace for parents
to file child care service applications for their children during the early stages of
pregnancy so as to receive these services six to nine months after giving birth.
Working mothers who are unable to gain access to these services oftentimes
quit their jobs and become stay-at-home mothers.

5.4.4 Ineffective Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project

The Social Welfare Department implemented the Neighbourhood Support Child

Care Project in 2008 to build a network of ‘home-based child carers’ in order to
provide flexible child care services to families with children aged nine or below,
especially those who need to work shifts for an extended period or with special
needs. The Neighbourhood Support Child Care Project has been running on a
voluntary basis and the carers only receive a small allowance of HK$18 to
HK$24 per hour.65 Some of the child carers thus lack the motivation to continue
offering these services. Furthermore, parents often complain about the
inadequate number of home-based child carers. According to the Census and
Statistics Department, there are nearly 570,000 children aged 0-9 in Hong Kong
as of 2015/1666, but there are currently only 1,864 home-based child carers.67
Parents thus often struggle to hire a child carer because of the overwhelming
demand and limited supply.

64
Written questions of the Legislative Council, http://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201511/18/P201511180696.htm
65
Replies to Finance Committee’s controlling officer in examining the Estimates of Expenditure 2017-18,P.493,
https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr16-17/chinese/fc/fc/w_q/lwb-ww-c.pdf
66
Census and Statistics Department, 2016 Population by-census
67
Replies to Finance Committee’s controlling officer in examining the Estimates of Expenditure 2017-18, P.493,
https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr16-17/chinese/fc/fc/w_q/lwb-ww-c.pdf
42
5.5 Elderly in poverty
Statistics from the Census and Statistics Department show that more than
390,000 elderly persons aged 65 or above lived in poverty in 2016. The poverty
rate among the elderly population was 36.6%, meaning one in every three
elderly citizens lived in poverty. As the problems associated with an aging
population are getting worse and the number of elderly persons are continuing
to increase, it is of paramount importance that the government takes even more
proactive measures to prevent elderly poverty.

Figure 24: Poverty rate among people aged 65 or above

People aged 65 or above

People aged 65 or above living in poverty

Poverty rate
2,000,000 50%

40.7% 40.7%
38.6%
36.6% 40%
1,500,000

1,313,118 1,345,180 1,321,110 30%

1,180,125
1,000,000

20%

500,000
10%
350,194 391,140
312,384
261,768
0 0%
2001 2006 2011 2016
Data Source: Census and Statistics Department

Hong Kong has adopted the four-pillar pension model proposed by the World
Bank. The four pillars are a multitiered social security system. ‘Zero pillar’ is a
non-contributory level of protection provided by the government; the ‘first pillar’
involves mandatory contributions as a part of one’s earnings; the ‘second pillar’
is also mandatory, like the MPF, and other occupation-based retirement
protection scheme related to one’s career. The ‘third pillar’ involves voluntary
savings, while public services, family support and personal assets constitute
the ‘fourth pillar’. By following this model, the responsibility of providing
retirement protection is shared amongst individuals/families, employers and the
government.

That said, loopholes still exist in this model. For instance, with regard to the
second pillar, severance payments and long service payments can be offset
using employees’ retirement funds, which greatly reduces retirees’ MPF
43
benefits and affects their retirement protection. There are also a substantial
number of people who are unable to provide the elderly members of their family
with support (fourth pillar). According to the Population By-census, the number
of non-taxpayers in Hong Kong’s labour force has exceeded 1.5 million, which
is nearly half of the labour force (45%), and most of them are expected to be
people living in poverty. 68 This reflects their limited ability to support their
dependent parents or to take care of the elderly at home. Further, it is difficult
for senior citizens living in poor households to support themselves for 20 years
using just their voluntary savings (third pillar).69

Table 9: Comparison between number of people in labour force and income taxpayers

Number
No. of people in labour force (foreign domestic helpers excluded) (A) in 3,419,107
2016
No. of income taxpayers in 2015/16 (B) 1,851,742
Estimated total number of non-taxpayers in labour force (annual 1,567,365
income below 120,001)(A-B)70

Data source: Population by Census

In order to cope with the problems caused by an aging population and the
retirement of more and more senior citizens, effective measures must be taken
and the current multi-pillar system must be strengthened. In particular, more
should be done with regard to the non-contributory ‘zero pillar’ and the second
pillar, as these are the greatest sources of support most senior citizens have.
How these can be improved is discussed below.

5.5.1 Government should strengthen non-contributory zero pillar to

support vulnerable senior citizens’ basic living expenses

Although the government has scrapped the requirement of a ‘bad son

statement’ when seniors apply for the CSSA, CSSA applications are still family-
based. So if seniors living in poverty want to apply for CSSA while their children
do not want to, the only solution is to move away from their children and apply
again. As such, many elderly citizens are forced to move away from their
residences without any care from their family, which goes against the
government’s wishes for elderly members of the society to age in place.

According to the current CSSA application process, the pocket money

applicants receive from their children is also counted as part of their income,
and is deducted from the CSSA subsidy they receive. This, however,
discourages children from supporting their parents financially.

68
2016 Population By-census – Working population by monthly income from main employment and years (foreign
domestic helpers excluded), Inland Revenue Department, 2016-17 Annual Report – Appendix 5 (Analysis of
Allowances for the year of assessment 2015-16)
69
Statistics (Note) from “Hong Kong Life Tables 2009-2064” published by Census and Statistics Department in 2015,
the average expected life span of 65-year-old men is 20 years and that of women is longer than men (i.e. 24.5 years).
70
2016 Population By-census – Working population by monthly income from main employment and years (foreign
domestic helpers excluded), Inland Revenue Department, 2016-17 Annual Report – Appendix 5 (Analysis of
Allowances for the year of assessment 2015-16)
http://www.povertyrelief.gov.hk/chi/pdf/721700013_Poverty%20Alleviation_C_rev.pdf，p.51
44
The latest Policy Address suggests further optimising the Old Age Living
Allowance (OALA), including adding an extra tier that offers a higher allowance
(HK$3,434 per month) on top of the existing allowance (HK$2,565 per month)
to offer greater protection to seniors who are more financially in need and are
eligible for the allowance. Oxfam agrees with this approach to support
vulnerable seniors. In fact, to elderly citizens with little savings, and even those
who have a few hundred thousand dollars, they are reluctant to use their
savings as they cannot predict their life span or the future risks (e.g. diseases)
they may face. Without other stable sources of income, most elderly have to
skimp on their expenses.

The government has reiterated that the purpose of OALA is to alleviate poverty,
thus it should and work on the possibility of further increasing the OALA to cater
to the needs of elderly citizens in poverty. The current average monthly
allowance for an elderly person is HK$6,394.71 As a matter of fact, the CSSA
is the most basic safety net for people in Hong Kong. Senior citizens have made
contributions to society throughout their lives and are financially vulnerable, as
such, society should give back to them. The government should also ensure
their monthly income after retirement is at least close to what they would receive
through the CSSA to ensure a decent standard of living.

In view of this, Oxfam suggests the government to set the OALA based on
CSSA figures. The higher OALA should be 65% of the elderly’s monthly CSSA,
i.e. HK$4,156; and the OALA should be 55% of the elderly’s monthly CSSA, i.e.
HK$3,516, in order to enable them to live with dignity.

5.5.2 Government should scrap MPF offsetting mechanism, which

weakens protection MPF should provide

Under the current retirement protection system, the MPF (second pillar) aims
to provide future retirement protection through the contributions of the working
population; this is especially important for low-income workers. However, the
MPF offsetting mechanism, which has yet to be scrapped, allows employers to
offset all or part of dismissed employees’ severance and long service payments
using employers’ accrued contributions. In 2016, the total amount that was
offset by employers reached HK$3.86 billion, of which HK$2.04 billion was used
to offset severance payments and HK$1.81 billion was used to offset long
service payments.

Under the current MPF system, no contribution is required from employees who
earn a monthly income lower than HK$7,100. If this amount is calculated by 26
working days per month and eight hours per day, the corresponding hourly rate
would be HK$34. According to the ‘2016 Report on Annual Earnings and Hours
Survey’ by the Census and Statistics Department, there are currently 60,200
workers whose salaries are below this salary level, and it is expected that most
of them would not be required to make contribution. Therefore the offsetting
mechanism wiped out a huge proportion or even all of their MPF, and meeting
basic daily needs would be a burden to them

https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr16-17/chinese/hc/sub_com/hs51/papers/hs5120180324cb2-1065-1-c.pdf
71

45
Let’s assume that a grassroots worker with monthly salary of $7,100 is
dismissed after working for 2 years. The MPF he gets from the employer’s
contribution will be $7,100 x 0.05 x 24 months = $8,520, and the severance
payment he is entitled to will be $7,100 x 2/3 x 2 years = $9,467. Under the
hedging mechanism, the employer only needs to pay the worker an extra
amount of $947 and the worker loses almost all of his MPF.

5.5.3 Government should improve public services to satisfy demand for

elderly services

As many senior citizens often face health issues as they get older, it is important
that the government improve public services and make it accessible to more
people. According to the 2017/18 Social Welfare Department Budget, the
registration rate of elderly day care centres and elderly day care units has
reached 105%, showing that the existing service quota does not satisfy the
current demand.72 Hong Kong has a notoriously low supply of residential care
places for the elderly; the total number of places was 73,600 in 2015/16, which
was a 3% drop compared to five years prior, yet there was a 24% increase in
the elderly population. The average waiting time for Care-and-Attention places
and Nursing Home places is 20 and 26 months respectively;73 In 2015, nearly
6,000 senior citizens passed away before they received an offer for Care-and-
Attention places and Nursing Home. Latest data also suggested that patients
must wait up to 78 weeks to see a specialist in the HK public hospitals, the long
waiting time definitely put in-needed senior citizens in a dangerous position.

https://www.budget.gov.hk/2017/chi/pdf/chead170.pdf
72

https://www.legco.gov.hk/research-publications/chinese/1617issh22-residential-care-services-for-the-elderly-
73

20170314-c.pdf
46
5.6 Ethnic minorities
For ethnic minorities residing in Hong Kong, the lack of proficiency in Chinese
has become a barrier to pursuing a higher education, applying for subsidies
and using public services. With limited upward social mobility, many can only
work as elementary or low-income workers and are unable to escape poverty.
According to recent statistics, one in three ethnic minority children (South Asian
and Southeast Asian people under 18 years old) lives in poverty. The poverty
rate among ethnic minorities is more severe than the citywide average, and the
problem of intergenerational poverty occurs more frequently among this
population. One of the most important ways to ensure this population can
overcome poverty is to improve their Chinese proficiency.

5.6.1 Poverty rate among South Asians stands at 23%

According to the ‘Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report on Ethnic Minorities

2016’(‘the Report’) published by the government, there are roughly 255,000
ethnic minorities in Hong Kong (excluding foreign domestic helpers). South
Asians (including Indians, Pakistanis and Nepalese) make up the largest
proportion of the ethnic minority population and the poverty rate among them is
23%; the poverty rate among the Pakistani population is particularly severe as
the poverty rate among them is 48.6%. The number of employed persons
(especially women) among Pakistani households is relatively low, and since
they generally have more children that need to be taken care of, these families
carry heavier financial burdens.

Figure 25: Poverty rate among South Asian population

60%

40% 48.6%

20%
23.0% 16.3% 13.5%
0%
Pakistani General Nepalese Indian
Data Source: Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report on Ethnic Minorities 2016

5.6.2 One in three South Asian children lives in poverty

The Report also revealed that the poverty rate among South Asian children is
33.6%, which is substantially higher than that of all ethnic minority children
(25.2%). Even with policy intervention, the poverty rate among South Asian
households with children is still estimated to be 29.1%, which is higher than the
average poverty rate of 15.3% in Hong Kong during the same period.

47
Figure 26: Poverty rate among South Asian children as compared to poverty rate among ethnic
minorities
40%
33.6%
20%
23.4%

0%
South Asians Ethnic minorities
Data source: Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report on Ethnic Minorities 2016

5.6.3 Ethnic minorities are less proficient in Chinese

As mentioned in 5.6, the poverty many South Asians face is closely related to
their poor Chinese proficiency. The Report revealed that South Asians are more
proficient in English than Chinese, and their Chinese reading and writing skills
are weaker than their speaking skills. Oxfam’s ‘Survey on the Chinese Learning
Challenges South Asian Ethnic Minority Kindergarten Students from Low-
Income Families Face’ (2014)74 also revealed that 58% of South Asian parents
cannot read Chinese and a quarter of the respondents (26.6%) could not speak
Cantonese. As such, most parents could not support their children’s Chinese-
learning at home.

With the current education policy, kindergartens, primary and secondary

schools still lack effective Chinese language courses for ethnic minority
students and training for teachers to teach Chinese as a second language. As
a result, non-Chinese speaking students (NCS students for whom Chinese is
not their first language) often find it difficult to catch up with the Chinese
language standards that are expected of them. The language barrier will further
affect their future studies and career prospects, which limits their upward social
mobility. As a result, many have only been able to take up elementary or low-
income occupations and have been unable to escape poverty.

5.6.4 Relatively low school attendance rate among South Asian youths

According to the Report, the school attendance rate among 19 to 24-year-old

South Asians is 28.1%, which is lower than the Hong Kong average of 46.6%.
In fact, the school attendance rates among Pakistanis and Nepalese is only
36.2% and 13.8% respectively. Many ethnic minorities also experience a lot of
frustration throughout their school career. Many of them drop out of school as
they feel pursuing higher studies is a hopeless endeavour because of their
limited Chinese proficiency. However, low academic qualifications restrict their
career choices to a significant extent, thus most of them can only take up
manual labour or low paying jobs that involve high risk. Their upward social
mobility is greatly obstructed and some of them are unable to find a job, thus
continuing the vicious cycle of poverty.

74
Oxfam: “Survey on the Chinese Learning Challenges South Asian Ethnic Minority Kindergarten Students from
Low-Income Families Face” (2014)

48
Figure 27: School attendance rate of ethnic minorities aged 19-24
60%
40%
46.6%
40.1% 36.2% 35.3%
20% 28.1%
0% 13.8%
Hong Kong Indian Pakistani Ethnic South Asian Nepalese
minorities
Data Source: Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report on Ethnic Minorities 2016

5.6.5 60% of schools with NCS students do not receive extra grants from
government

In light of the aforementioned problems, civil society has urged the government
to provide ethnic minority students with greater Chinese-learning support over
the past decade. The Education Bureau (EDB) finally implemented the Chinese
Language Curriculum Second Language Learning Framework in the 2014/15
academic year to support ethnic minority students to learn Chinese. It also
provided subsidies to schools that have admitted NCS students. Large
subsidies will only be granted to secondary and primary schools that have
admitted 10 or more NCS students, while schools that have admitted nine or
fewer NCS students can apply for an annual subsidy of HK$50,000.

The EDB also implemented the Free Quality Kindergarten Education scheme
this year to strengthen its support for NCS students. The scheme provides
subsidies to kindergartens that have admitted eight or more NCS students, and
the amount granted is similar to the mid-point salary of a kindergarten teacher.
However, under the promotion of inclusive education, among the more than
60% of schools which have admitted fewer than 10 NCS students, there were
203 and 184 primary and secondary schools respectively that admitted less
than 10 NCS students.

49
Table 10: Number and percentage of primary and secondary schools that have admitted NCS students
in 20117/18

Number of non-Chinese speaking Number of non-Chinese speaking

students in primary schools students in secondary schools
No. of Percentage No. of Percentage
schools (%) schools (%)
Below 10 203 62.5 Below 10 184 63.2
10 to 25 63 19.4 10 to 25 56 19.2
26 to 50 22 6.8 26 to 50 16 5.5
51 or 37 11.4 51 or above 35 12
above
Total 325 100 291 100
Data source: Education Bureau 75

A total of 232 kindergartens have admitted less than eight NCS students; they
account for 59.3% of kindergartens that have admitted NCS students. Under
the current policy framework, the support received by primary and secondary
schools that have few NCS students is very limited while kindergartens receive
no extra grants. As such, it is hard for schools to have sufficient resources to
support NCS students’ Chinese language learning.

Table 11: Number and percentage of kindergartens that have admitted NCS students in 2017/18

Number of non-Chinese speaking students in

kindergartens
No. of Percentage (%)
schools
Below 8 232 59.3
8 to 25 115 29.4
26 to 50 22 5.6
51 tor above 22 5.6
Total 391 100
Data Source: Education Bureau 76

5.6.6 Government failed to grasp opportunity during optimal age to help

ethnic minority children learn Chinese

A recent study showed that NCS students begin listening and speaking Chinese
20,000 hours later than local students as they only begin learning Chinese in
kindergarten and have few opportunities to learn to speak and understand
Chinese prior to that.77 Sometimes, people might wrongly believe that they can
learn Chinese easily if they just studied at local kindergartens and attended
classes with Chinese-speaking students, however, NCS students need to deal
with the language barrier. For instance, when a teacher asks a question,

75
Section 18, EDB, p.778, https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr17-18/chinese/fc/fc/w_q/edb-c.pdf
76
Section 18, EDB, p.788，https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr17-18/chinese/fc/fc/w_q/edb-c.pdf
77
Lightbown, P. M., & Spada, N. (2017). How languages are learned (4th ed). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

50
Chinese-speaking students might raise their hands to answer the questions
right away, but NCS students are often still figuring out the teacher’s question.
As a result, NCS students tend to seem silent, emotional, or even exhibit ‘bad
behaviours’ compared to Chinese-speaking students in the same class. Failure
to learn Chinese, then, directly affects their ability to absorb new knowledge,
and hinders their learning progress.

The Education Bureau provides pre-schools with NCS students with little
support. We would like to focus on the courses, teaching training, enrichment
of Chinese learning period and additional subsidies to analysis the inadequacy
of the current policy.

Currently, the EDB’s Kindergarten Education Curriculum Guide78 provides very

little guidance and it offers few materials to help NCS children learn Chinese as
compared to the supplementary guidelines primary schools are given. 79 As
such, Oxfam hopes that the EDB will strengthen its support at once as it is their
responsibility to come up with a curriculum and provide teaching materials to
kindergartens that can help ethnic minority children learn Chinese more readily.

Further, only a small amount of short-term training courses is available for

kindergarten teachers, so most teachers have not received much training in this
area. Recently, the EDB has enforced a requirement stipulating that at least
one kindergarten teacher needs to complete basic training in the 2018/19
academic year if they have received additional subsidies from the EDB.80 In
the long run, it is important to provide more high-quality training opportunities
to kindergarten teachers who teach NCS students.

As such, Oxfam hopes the government can continue running the scheme and
incorporate it into its education policy to help more NCS students learn Chinese.
Evidence has shown 81 that Chinese language enrichment can narrow the
distance between NCS and Chinese-speaking students.

EDB implemented Free Quality Kindergarten Education this academic year. For
kindergarten admitting 8 or more non-Chinese-speaking students, further
support is provided through an additional grant comparable to the salary of one
kindergarten teacher. However, the number of kindergartens that have admitted
less than 8 non-Chinese speaking students is 232, which accounts for 59.3%
of kindergartens that have admitted non-Chinese speaking students. Under the
current policy, these kindergartens are not able to acquire any additional
resources. Therefore, it is hard to help the non-Chinese students to learn
Chinese. We suggest that all additional resources and subsides should cover
on all non-Chinese student. It can allow the kindergartens to provide effective
support to them.

78 http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/tc/curriculum-development/major-level-of-edu/preprimary/KGECG-TC-2017.pdf
79 http://www.edb.gov.hk/attachment/tc/curriculum-development/kla/chi-
edu/sg%20to%20chi%20lang%20curr%20ncs%20proper%20chi%20upload%20r.pdf
80 https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr17-18/chinese/panels/ed/papers/ed20180105cb4-427-2-c.pdf

81 https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr16-17/chinese/hc/sub_com/hs52/papers/hs5220180227cb2-909-2-ec.pdf

51
Recently, the Equal Opportunities Commission and other organisations have
expressed concern about the unwillingness of many kindergartens to admit
NCS students82. We urge the government to re-examine the use of resources
and increase its recurrent expenditure on NCS kindergarteners. If
kindergartens that admit them obtain curriculum, teaching and administrative
support, this would better equip them to teach NCS students.

5.6.7 Poor ethnic minority families with children face difficulty in applying
for student financial assistance

A survey conducted in 2016 revealed that 15% of South Asian families were
unaware of the Financial Assistance Schemes for Primary & Secondary
Students while more than 90% of respondents encountered difficulties when
applying for it (including the School Textbook Assistance Scheme, Student
Travel Subsidy Scheme and Subsidy Scheme for Internet Access Charges) as
they could not read or write Chinese and English, and the application
procedures were too complicated83. As a result, they were unable to obtain
reasonable subsidies to alleviate the financial burden of sending their children
to school.

Although the EDB has leaflets in English and other languages common among
ethnic minority communities in Hong Kong, it does not help as schools do not
provide these leaflets in other languages to ethnic minority families. Further,
around 80% of respondents did not seek help from their children’s schools
when they encountered difficulties during the application process. As such,
ethnic minority families were unable to receive basic student subsidies due to
the language barrier.

5.6.8 Ethnic minorities encounter difficulties when using public services

Apart from being unable to apply for various subsidies, ethnic minorities have
also encountered difficulties when trying to use public services, such as
medical, social welfare and community services, because of their limited
Chinese proficiency.

The Administrative Guidelines on Promotion of Racial Equality, formulated by

the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau, have provided guidance to
different government departments and public institutes on how to offer ethnic
minorities with equal opportunities when it comes to using public services84.
However, interpretation services, one of the main relief measures, were not
mentioned in the guidelines. Moreover, when ethnic minorities request for this
service from government departments when using public services, they are
refused using different reasons or they have to wait a long time.

82
http://www.eoc.org.hk/eoc/GraphicsFolder/ShowContent.aspx?ItemID=15186
83
Catholic Diocese of Hong Kong, Diocesan Pastoral Centre for Workers – Kowloon, Sep 2016, Survey on
Accessibility of the South Asian Ethnic Minorities to “Financial Assistance Schemes for Primary & Secondary
Students” in the 2015-16 School Year, http://dpcwkln.hkccla.org.hk/document/I08_08.pdf
84
Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau, “Administrative Guidelines on Promotion of Racial Equality”,
http://www.cmab.gov.hk/tc/issues/equal_admin_guideline.htm
52
Take medical services as an example, public hospitals claim that they can
provide interpretation services for ethnic minorities. However, many ethnic
minorities are unaware of this service, and in reality, few interpreters are
available. Even if patients know of this service, they have to use one day to a
few weeks took book an appointment with an interpreter. Furthermore, names
of drugs are mostly in Chinese and English. This thus causes confusion when
ethnic minority patients take their medication. Therefore, when ethnic minorities
are sick, they are often unable to gain access to medical services, delay
seeking treatment or have difficulty taking the medicine they are prescribed.

5.6.9 Ethnic minorities encounter difficulties in employment

Ethnic minorities’ chance of employment is directly affected by their Chinese

proficiency. A research of Equal Opportunity Commission (2015)85 indicated
three concerns of employers in hiring ethnic minorities – Chinese proficiency,
religion and cultural differences, and appearances such as skin color and
costume. Ethnic minorities usually can only rely on their neighborhood network
in job seeking resulted in limited types of jobs, usually those traditionally hiring
more ethnic minorities. Moreover, ethnic minorities generally face the problem
of lower level of salary even they are being employed.

5.6.10 An additional HK$500 million should be allocated to offer support

to ethnic minorities

After many years of civil society’s advocacy efforts, the government earmarked
HK$500 million in the Budget Proposal 2018/19 to strengthen its support for
ethnic minorities. It will enhance collaboration within the government to offer
ethnic minorities with greater support, and the Chief Secretary for
Administration will set up a steering committee to co-ordinate, review and
monitor work in this area.

In light of this, Oxfam submitted a position paper to the Legislative Council’s

Subcommittee on Rights of Ethnic Minorities in February 2018 regarding the
aforementioned issues. Oxfam hopes the government will make good use of
the HK$500 million and formulate the necessary policies to benefit ethnic
minorities as soon as possible.86

85Chinese YMCA of Hong Kong, 2015, 對本港不同行業聘用少數族裔人士情況之研究 (funded by the Equal Opportunities
Commission, Chinese version only)
86 https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr16-17/chinese/hc/sub_com/hs52/papers/hs5220180227cb2-909-2-ec.pdf
53
Conclusion: Reverse extreme inequality by
building a human economy
Looking at the data, it is clear that Hong Kong, one of the three major
international financial hubs, will never fall short of funds, yet the city ranked low
in global rankings such as the Happy Planet Index. To help the public and
government better understand inequality in Hong Kong, which is worsening,
and how it has led to a bleak future for many of its citizens, Oxfam has decided
to publish a report on inequality instead of a poverty report like it had done
annually in the past.

Citizens experiencing hardship can only see a bright future if the government
gives up its ‘hoarder mentality’ and develop a human economy. The
government should also make use of the long-hidden huge surplus, and greatly
increase its recurrent expenditure on public services to improve them and
benefit low-income citizens. It is only by doing this that citizens who are
struggling to get by will be able to finally see a realistic and bright future.

The government has always said that the income of the Treasury fluctuates
greatly like a rollercoaster so as to rationalise the reduction of its recurrent
expenditure, and use capital expenditure to carryout one-off measures to
assuage citizens’ dissatisfaction. However, one-off measures are not
guaranteed every year and it varies in accordance with the amount of surplus
the government has. As such, spending recurrent expenditure on basic public
services would be more appropriate. Further, a government that encourages a
human economy that cares about all of its citizens rather than just the fortunate
few should increase its recurrent expenditure substantially to demonstrate its
commitment and determination to eliminate extreme inequality in society.

Oxfam’s Inequality Report this year not only points out problem areas in terms
of education, healthcare, women’s status and labour rights in Hong Kong like
its poverty reports, it also explores other topics like poverty among ethnic
minorities and public finances. Further, it compares Hong Kong with other
developed economies and does so to make a point: since the government often
claims that Hong Kong is as competitive as other big cities in developed
countries and regions, Hong Kong’s public finances should be in line with that
of those cities by increasing its public expenditures to reverse extreme
inequality in a way that the government can afford now.

In fact, although the wealth gap is widening, the Hong Kong government has
accumulated a surplus of more than HK$690 billion dollars and fiscal reserves
have exceeded HK$1.1 trillion. Oxfam believes that Hong Kong should aim to
achieve SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities. As a member of the global community,
Oxfam expects the Hong Kong government to include the SDGs in Hong
Kong’s future development blueprint and build a human economy. That
way, the majority of wealth will not be in the hands of the richest 1%, the
99% can enjoy the fruits of economic growth and everyone will be able to
enjoy a more equitable society. To reach this goal, Oxfam has the following
policy suggestions:
54
1) Build a human economy and reduce inequality by using public finance
to benefit citizens

Although the wealth gap is widening, the Hong Kong government has
accumulated a surplus of more than HK$690 billion and its fiscal reserves have
exceeded HK$1.1 trillion, yet recurrent expenditure spent on aspects that are
beneficial to low-income earners remains low. Hong Kong almost ranks the
lowest in terms of its expenditure on basic services when compared with
members of the OECD (e.g. South Korea, Japan, the United Kingdom,
Australia, Canada, New Zealand). Oxfam thus suggests the government to
increase its recurrent expenditure so that the recurrent expenditure to
GDP ratio returns to the level in 2003 – 15.7%. The expected GDP in the
2018/19 budget is HK$2.8 trillion 87 , while the additional recurrent
expenditure will probably be approximately HK$36.7 billion. Since
introducing or improving government policies require long planning
processes, Oxfam suggests increasing recurrent expenditure and
implementing new measures or services (such as increasing residential
care places for the elderly) in phases over the next three years.

In the meantime, Oxfam hopes the government will explore the possibility
of introducing participatory budgeting when deciding on the new
expenditure. This would allow the public to help make decisions in this area
through the debate and participation. The concept of participatory budgeting
came about in 1988 in Alegre, Brazil. It aims to help the poor and the community
at large access more public resources to alleviate poverty. More than 140 cities
in Brazil, and over 1,500 cities in the world have already implemented this
concept.88

2) Improve labour protection and benefits

Oxfam believes it is unfair that low-income earners cannot share the fruits of
economic growth even though they have contributed to financial prosperity of
Hong Kong.

Oxfam thus urges the government to review minimum wage annually to

ensure the salary level is higher than the CSSA level and that adjustments
made to minimum wage match inflation. Oxfam also encourages employers
who are able to pay employees a living wage so that low-income workers and
their families can afford a basic standard of living.

The government should also review its outsourcing system

comprehensively, and address problems like exceptionally low pay and
unsatisfactory labour conditions as a result of the current system where the
contract is awarded to the lowest bidder. Furthermore, the government should
penalise non-compliant service contractors more severely in order to protect
the labour rights of contractual workers.

87 2018-19 Budget, https://www.budget.gov.hk/2018/eng/pdf/c_appendices_b.pdf

88 https://www.mof.gov.tw/File/Attach/73586/File_10803.pdf
55
To tackle the exploitation of casual workers, the government should also re-
define the meaning of 418 to include employees who work 72 hours a month
so that they too can be protected under Labour Ordinance. Last but not least,
the government should restart its consultation process and legislation work on
the assurance of employees’ collective bargaining right to protect both the rights
of employers and employees.

3) Provide equal education opportunities to enhance upward social

mobility of ethnic minorities

Education is an effective way of mitigating inequality and enhancing the upward

social mobility of ethnic minorities. All children are born equal. Poor or ethnic
minority children should not be treated less favourably. However, their limited
Chinese proficiency has created a barrier for many of them, hindering them
from pursuing higher studies or seeking higher paying jobs. It is generally
agreed that there is a need to enhance Chinese education for ethnic minorities
to empower them to escape poverty. As kindergarteners are at the optimal age
to learn a new language, Oxfam urges the government to put more
resources into pre-primary education and provide enrichment courses for
NCS students such that their Chinese proficiency can be brought up to
the level of Chinese speaking students.

Moreover, more resources should be used to train teachers. Oxfam

recommends giving subsidies to kindergartens that have admitted NCS
students by the student ratio, such that kindergartens can have enough
resources to help their NCS students learn Chinese more effectively.
Furthermore, the EDB should specify that the additional subsidies must
be used to recruit extra teachers to teach NCS students Chinese.

Regarding the new framework currently used in secondary and primary

schools, Oxfam suggests that the government review the form of grants
to schools that have admitted nine or fewer non-Chinese speaking
students, and change it from application by schools to active allocation
by the government to ensure enough support for schools. The current subsidy
level of HK$50,000 should also be reviewed to allow schools to recruit extra
staff or outsource Chinese as a second language enrichment courses.

To achieve sustainable course development in the long run, the EDB should
implement school-based Chinese as a second language enrichment
courses in all Hong Kong kindergartens to provide NCS students with
greater support. The government should also establish a three-tier training
system (basic, advanced and thematic) with reference to the professional
development framework of teachers who specialise in catering to students with
special educational needs. Doing this would ensure that a certain percentage
of teachers of schools that admit NCS students receive systematic
training within a certain timeframe.

Regarding the employment problems faced by ethnic minorities, Oxfam

suggests reviewing and strengthening the supportive measures e.g. to
establish user-friendly job-seeking information database and proactively build
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up employers’ network for ethnic minorities.

Regarding the challenges ethnic minorities face when applying for social
welfare and using public services, though the government has proposed
various supporting measures to address this – including the translation of
information and simultaneous interpretation services – there is still much room
for improvement to make ethnic minorities aware of the existence of the
services and to use them. Oxfam thus suggests that the government amend
the Administrative Guidelines on Promotion of Racial Equality to offer clearer
guidance on the provision of interpretation services and to raise awareness
among the ethnic minority population about different social welfare and
supportive services. In the meantime, the government should invest more
resources on popularising supportive services and improving service quality.

4) Consolidate multiple pillars of retirement protection to ensure better

life of the grassroots elderly

Oxfam urges the government to scrap MPF offsetting mechanism as soon as

possible. It should set the deadline for the cancellation, maintain the current
calculation method of severance and long service payments and ensure the
compensation would not less than that the workers received before the set
deadline so as to protect workers’ retirement funds. In order to strengthen the
non-contributory pillar (zero pillar), the government should allow elderly
citizens in need to apply for CSSA independently in the long run to avoid
having to force the elderly to move away from their children just so that they are
eligible for the CSSA. By doing this, eligible elderly will be able to receive
financial assistance from the government and be taken care at home by their
families, thus realising the government’s goal of encouraging elderly citizens to
age in place. The government should also set an upper limit for the
dependent parent allowance, which would be determined by referring to the
current disregarded earnings 89 level to avoid the reduction of CSSA grants
because of the pocket money they receive from their families.

Oxfam expects the government to further increase the OALA in order to

allow the elderly to live with dignity. It suggests increasing the amount based
on the average CSSA rates. More specifically, the higher OALA should be
65% of the elderly’s monthly CSSA, i.e. HK$4,156; while OALA should be
55% of the elderly’s monthly CSSA, i.e. HK$3,516.

In order to tackle the chronic lack of elderly care services, Oxfam

suggests an increase in related recurrent expenditures to ensure that an
increased supply will satisfy current and future demand. That includes
increasing the number of residential care, day care service, and integrated
home care service places; improving household and community care services;
and developing medical care services for low-income elderly citizens.

Social Welfare Department “Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA) Scheme” P.27
89

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5) Enhance child care services and assist grassroots to re-enter labour
market

To allow family carers to join more social and economic activities and unleash
labour force, there is a pressing need to dramatically increase the number of
subsidised nursery places. The government should examine and review the
current supply and demand of nursery services in all districts to increase both
subsidised and non-subsidised places of different child care services,
especially in new developing areas. The operation time of nursery services
should be extended as well.

The government should include child care service facilities into the Hong
Kong Planning Standards and Guidelines to decide the number of child
care centres according to the population ratio to cater to the different needs
in the community. The government should also work on providing child care
services in locations that are highly accessible. For instance, it could
discuss with the MTR the possibility of setting up child care centres at
major interchange stations or new MTR stations to make these centres
more convenient for parents. Also, child care centres should also be
incorporated into the planning behind the construction of new
government premises, including public housing estates, government
buildings, and civic centres.

Oxfam suggests that the government establish performance pledges and

targets for nursery services and create a nursery database to upload
important information regarding nursery services in Hong Kong to the Social
Welfare Department’s website. By doing this, parents will be able to better
understand the details and waiting time of nursery centres in different districts
and plan ahead.

Furthermore, the government should reform its current home-based child

care service system to provide official employment for home-based child
carers. The home-based child care service should be changed from semi-
voluntary to official employment and the government should increase service
places. It should also review the home-based child care system, strengthen the
training child carers receive and establish a registration system of carers to
improve the service quality.

6) Establish a policy on bazaars

The government should establish a policy on bazaars that recognises the social
and economic value of bazaars, and its ability to alleviate poverty. It should also
formulate application guidelines to allow non-profit organisations to rent
government venues for hawking purposes. Further, it should list out in detail the
application criteria for different departments, and information like the licenses
needed and what the approval process entails to increase transparency. Since
the application process involves different departments and bureaus, like the
Lands Department (Development Council), Leisure and Cultural Services
Department (Home Affairs Bureau), Food and Environmental Hygiene
Department (Food and Health Bureau), Home Affairs Department (Home Affairs
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Bureau), Oxfam suggests establishing a one-stop management platform at the
central level (i.e. under the administration of the Chief Secretary) to co-ordinate
various procedures involved.

7) Mitigate housing problems and increase supply of public rental

housing

To solve the housing problem, the government should develop different kinds
of community housing in the short term to provide temporary residence for low-
income families on the public rental housing waiting list.

Over the past few years, Oxfam has been supporting community groups’
initiatives, improving poor households’ living conditions through innovative
methods and supplying other forms of community housing at low rent. Oxfam
expects the government to strengthen its support in terms of community
housing to improve the living conditions of citizens who are still living in
subdivided flats.

In long term, the government should work on the planning and development of
brownfield sites. They should accelerate the planning progress to confirm the
land sizes of different public housing projects and increase the public housing
ratio. In fact, the Task Force on Land Supply already states that some
brownfields in Hong Kong have good development potential,90 therefore the
government should actively explore these sites. One hectare of land can
accommodate approximately 850 public rental flats, or 2,180 people.91 If the
government could speed up its development of brownfield sites, areas in the
New Territories could already provide suitable residence for numerous families
and reduce social inequality.

8) Review current tax system based on principle of ‘ability-to-pay’

The problems that associated with an aging population (silver tsunami) will be
the greatest challenges Hong Kong will face in the future, and will seriously
strain public finances in the long run. The government’s ‘2017 Poverty Report’
pointed out that the elderly population will increase to 24.6% in 2026 and 31.1%
in 2031. In view of this, Oxfam suggests that the government prepare ahead
of time by reviewing the current tax system based on the principle of
‘ability-to-pay’ to study different possibilities of increasing government
revenue. This could include the regulation of profit tax rate of enterprises
with high profits and stamp duty of the wealthy. This can help bring about
fiscal justice and help the government better redistribute resources to
narrow the gap between rich and poor, and create a more equitable
society.

At the same time, the government should ensure tax transparency. Taking
privacy protection into consideration, enterprises should provide country-by-
country reporting, which should be made available to both the Inland

90
http://www.devb.gov.hk/filemanager/tc/content_1054/Paper_05_2017.pdf
91
Calculation based on Shui Chuen O Estate, where 13.3 hectares of land provides 11,000 public rental flats for
residence of 29,000 people.
59
Revenue Department and the public to enable the public to better monitor
multinational corporations and prevent tax avoidance. Moreover, the Hong
Kong government should greatly enhance transparency around beneficial
ownership. There should be legislation not only to supervise corporations, but
also legal entities, like trusts and limited liability partnerships, to block all
legislative loopholes that allow tax avoidance among the wealthy as well as
multinational corporates. The government should also establish a beneficial
ownership central index that is accessible by the public, and reduce the
corporate holding that defines beneficial ownership from 25%, as proposed by
the government, to 10% or below to keep wealthy people and beneficial owners
accountable, and to prevent them from evading their responsibility to pay tax.

Cover Photo: Oxfam / Tai Ngai Lung

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