Thursday, November 11, 2010

Hong Kong has set a minimum wage. So when is it Singapore's turn?

Hong Kong has finally set a minimum wage at 28 HKD an hour. Although it is lesser than the 33 HKD an hour asked by the unions, this wage is suppose to boost their pay by 16.9% on average. It seems that Hong Kong understands that employees are the most valuable asset to enterprises, and they are trying to address the growing income gap.

Many countries already have minimum wage legislation in place, with hourly rates in New York and London set between 7.25 and 8.80 US dollars. According to Wikipedia, the following countries already have a minimum wage legislation:
  • Australia
  • Brazil
  • Canada
  • People's Republic of China
  • European Union
  • France
  • Hong Kong (just added)
  • Ireland
  • Japan
  • New Zealand
  • Pakistan
  • Romania
  • Taiwan
  • United Kingdom
  • United States

So when is it Singapore's turn??

    2 comments:

    Anonymous said...

    I think you forgot Malaysia, Singapore's closest neighbour. They are planning to set up a wage council to set policies on minimum wage:
    http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/10/16/budget/7239874&sec=budget

    If I am not mistaken, Singapore and Brunei are the only countries in East Asia without any form of minimum wage legislation, national local or otherwise. Even China, famous for its sweat shops has minimum wage policy.

    chantc said...

    Thanks for the link. I did not know about the Malaysia news.

    However, knowing Malaysia, I won't count my chickens until it hatches. After all, they did postponed it once before.

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