EMPLOYMENT
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Wages
Wage rates are calculated on a time basis, either daily or monthly, or on an incentive basis depending on the volume of work performed. The pay period is normally 15 days for daily-rated and piece-rated workers and a month for monthly-rated workers. Most semi-skilled and unskilled workers in the manufacturing sector are piece-rated or daily- rated. Industrial workers in skilled trades or in technical, supervisory, clerical and secre- tarial capacities are usually monthly-rated. Workers in the non-manufacturing sectors are usually monthly-rated.
The average wage rates for all employees, including wage earners and salaried employees up to the supervisory level, increased by 10.6 per cent in money terms, or decreased by 0.8 per cent in real terms between September 1990 and September 1991. The average earnings for persons engaged in the manufacturing sector rose by 10.5 per cent in money terms, but decreased by 1.1 per cent in real terms during the same period.
Wage rates in the manufacturing sector continued to increase in money terms during the year, while unemployment and underemployment remained at a low level due to continued expansion of the service sector of the economy. After allowing for rises in consumer prices, the wage rates for all employees decreased in real terms by 1.2 per cent between September 1990 and September 1991.
In September, 75 per cent of manual workers in the manufacturing sector received a daily wage, including fringe benefits, of $158 or more, and 25 per cent received $240 or more. The overall average daily wage was 204.
Employee Benefits
The Employment Ordinance provides for benefits including statutory holidays, annual leave, rest days, maternity leave, sickness allowance, severance payment, long service payment and other entitlements for employees. In addition to these statutory provisions, some employers also provide employees with various types of fringe benefits such as subsidised meals or food allowances, good attendance bonuses, free medical or subsidised treatment and free or subsidised transport. Many employees also enjoy a year-end bonus of one month's pay or more under their employment contracts, usually paid just before the Lunar New Year.
While there is no central provident fund in Hong Kong, the government has encouraged employers to establish their own provident fund scheme for staff and in recent years, an increasing number of employers have done so to provide improved long-term security for their employees. Up to the end of 1991, a total of 11 275 private provident fund schemes had been registered with the Inland Revenue Department.
Since 1986, employers have been required under the Employment Ordinance to make long service payment to their employees who have worked continuously for a specified number of years, ranging from five to 10, and who are dismissed other than by way of summary dismissal or redundancy. The amount of long service payment is calculated at the rate of two-thirds of a month's wages for each year of service, but the rate is reduced if the employee is aged below 40. The long service payment scheme was improved in July 1988 by extending its coverage to eligible employees who resign on grounds of ill-health or who retire at the age of 65 or above after at least 10 years' service. Long service payment is also payable to the families of eligible employees who die in service.
The Employment (Amendment) (Long Service Payment) Ordinance 1991, which came into effect on November 29, 1991, further improved the entitlement of employees to long