Looking around his cramped home, with his family’s possessions piled up to save space, Chan Chuen Bui, 71, recalled that life was not this hard in his younger days. The Hongkonger, who worked in interior furnishing, said he used to earn between HK$20,000 (S$3,500) and HK$30,000 a month in 1997, and lived in a 300 sq ft low-cost public housing.
The city’s minimum pay rate has not changed since it was last raised to HK$37.50 an hour in 2019, as an NGO urges the government to review the figure more often to keep up with inflation.
Carrie Lam cites introduction of five-day statutory paternity leave for men and 14-week maternity leave for women as examples of her administration’s work.