Employment poverty in this Special Administrative Region has steadily got worse in the past 10 years, according to an Oxfam report released yesterday.


Using figures from the government's general household survey, the report reviewed poverty trends in Hong Kong's workforce from 1996 to 2006.


Employment poverty is defined in the report as workers earning less than HK$5,000 a month.


This is half of the median income of all workers in Hong Kong in 2006. (HK$10,000 a month excluding the salary of domestic helpers).


The report said the growth in the number of poor people "is seven times faster than the increase of GDP per capita".


The number of poor rose 38 percent from 835,400 in 1997 to 1,160,200 in 2006, whereas the GDP increase was only 5.1 percent.


In 2006, 13 percent of the workforce was in the poor category. In the past 10 years the number of poor workers surged 87 percent from 222,800 to 418,600.


The report said 63 percent of the poor workers were women.


Most of them were middle-aged immigrants from the Chinese mainland who worked part-time.


In 2006, the number of workers earning less than HK$3,000 a month rose from 68,600 to 139,000, more than a 100-percent increase since 1996.


Wong Hung, the Chinese University's assistant professor of social work and a researcher of the report, said there was a growing trend not only in general poverty but also employment poverty.


"The core of poverty in Hong Kong is not unemployment but employment poverty," he said.


According to the government's general household survey last year, although there were 30,000 fewer unemployed people than in 2005, there were 80,000 more poor workers.


"This shows in the years of economic recovery from 2003 onwards even when the unemployment rate dropped, the number of poor workers was still high," Wong said.


The report suggested statutory minimum wage legislation should be introduced to reduce poverty.


In the medium term the government should also introduce comprehensive social welfare provisions.


From experience in Britain and Ireland, Wong said introducing a statutory minimum wage would not increase unemployment.


The Oxfam report did not recommend a minimum wage level, "as this should be determined by the government, employers and workers".


Oxfam manager for Hong Kong, Joseph Woo Man-lung, said the organization had proposed a meeting with Chief Executive Donald Tsang to discuss the report before he delivers his policy address next month.

Source: China Daily