TNAG-0091-FCO40-127-Social-welfare-working-conditions-in-Hong-Kong-1968 — Page 39

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Labour Conditions in Hong Kong

of the one-and-a-half million people at work in Hong Kong,

576,000 are in the manufacturing industries.

In 1967 the registered

and recorded number of persons employed in factories and industrial

undertakings amounted to 444,000, Those engaged in weaving, spinning,

knitting and the manufacture of garments and made-up textile goods

accounted for approximately 185,000 and constituted the largest

section of this labour force. Unemployment, which in 1961 was

estimated at about 11% of the economically active labour force, is

among the lowest in Asia, Hong Kong wage rates are high by Asian

standards, and, in general, wages and conditions of work in Hong Kong

are second only to those in Japan amongst Asian countries.

2.

Wage Rates

The index of wage rates has more than doubled since 1959

(1958 = 100; 1967 = 203), und, as the cost of living index has risen

much more slowly, real vages have risen over the period (by about, it

is estimated, quarters). Table 5 in the attached report of the

Department of Labour and Mines for October 1967 to March 1968 shows

the amount of increase in wage rates since 1958.

Any direct comparison of Hong Kong wage rates with those in

developed countries can be misleading owing to differences in the

general tax structure.

Direct taxation in Hong Kong is considerably

Excise

lower and the system of allowances such that few industrial workers

are liable to the equivalent of income tax. There is no purchase tax

and the cost of consumer goods is not inflated by tariffs,

duties are limited to patrol, tobacco and liquor and there is a first

registration tax on motor vehicles. Otherwise Hong Kong is duty free.

Most of the basic foodstuffs which enter into a worker's cost of

living are imported from China at prices which have been remarkably

atable over the past ten years.

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