Not Even Minimum Wage

For those who may doubt how hard domestic helpers work in Hong Kong, this excerpt from a Letter to the Editor of the local rag sums it up quite well:

By 9am most domestic helpers have been up for a minimum of three hours, during which they will have washed one or two cars, walked the dog, bathed, dressed and packed lunches for the children of the household and served the family breakfast. She then gets the children to school, shops for meals and does the cleaning, laundry and ironing. Picking the children up from school she ferries them to various lessons for several hours. Returning home, she prepares dinner, feeds the children and packs their bag for the next day.

The parents come home later and are served a full meal; after she gets through the washing up, it is often 11 or 12 at night.

She is then free to luxuriate in her "rest and leisure time", perhaps six hours before starting it all again the next day.

Working these 18-hour days, six days per week at the minimum wage for helpers, her hourly salary is a glorious HK$33.15 [about US$4.25; ed.].

The fact of the matter is that this town would come to a standstill without the support of the community of domestic helpers.

Indeed, heaven forbid that some folks in this town might have to do a little housework.

Why, that's just unthinkable.

← Older Posts · 早前 | →