xiv
utilities sector appears to be among the most successful in this
respect; the cotton spinners may be represented alternatively as
a divided tea-house clique or as an extremely coherent, disciplined
body. It is not even clear whether two complementary monopolies
like the electricity companies are able to agree not to compete
for each other's labour. There is no doubt in my mind that, where
a few large companies dominate an industry and these companies are
run by men of common ethnic origin (thereby overcoming the
linguistic/cultural heterogeneity and divergent employment practices
which inhibits employers' cooperation in HK), employers are able
effectively to maintain a common wages policy - to determine a
common rate of wage increase which "keep us one step ahead in the
game", but which is in no way the product of "market forces".
Employers will always seek to prevent a runaway wages spiral by
observing at least some rules of non-competition between
themselves.
Having said this, however, we cannot overlook the manifest
imperfections of any attempt to impose an employer-regulated model
on the HK situation. Divisions within an industry are common-place;
there is no formal machinery to harmonise wages policy; sectors
like manufacturing (garments, electronics, etc) who employ large
bodies of relatively scarce, mobile, semi-skilled operatives are
incapable of keeping down wages the wigs and denim booms provide
good examples of this, and when it happens, the labour market is
competitive enough for the ripple effects of rises in one sector to
spread pretty widely through the rest of the economy.
(An econo-
metric study of wage trends in various sectors, for which there is
ample data, would reveal just how this works.)
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In general, employers enjoy a high rate of return on capital;
in the absence of collective bargaining by workers, they are able
to absorb increased wage costs with varying degrees of equanimity.
When the market is not pushing wages up, they must arrive at an
arbitrary figure for annual wage increases which they are able to
agree among themselves is equitable. This general rate is set at
the top, in the higher echelons of the colony's ruling class
(Jardines and the like), and the government is an integral part of
the mechanism whereby a common standard is diffused through the
economy as a whole.