Mr. John Rankin (Glasgow, Govan)
NOTES FOR SUPPLEMENTARIES
Age Rates in Hong Kong
The questioner's standard figure of £4. 10s. may have been calculated from information in the 1967 Annual Report of the Department of Labour about the range of wages paid in March of that year to industrial workers. At that time £4. 10s. would have been about what the average unskilled worker could earn for a 48 hour week. On the latest information available average earnings in a 48 hour week would be :-
2.
Unskilled
Semi-skilled
Skilled
£5.5.
£6.15.
£8.15.
-
-
Many workers receive additional benefits, including free or subsidised living accommodation, free medical treatment, subsidised meals, food allowance, Chinese New Year bonus, Good Attendance bonus
and paid rest days. Some employers pay educational allowances to employees to defray part or all of the school fees for employees'
children.
3. It would be deceptive to compare wage rates in Hong Kong with, for example, those in Britain, just as it would be to make an
unqualified comparison between wages in the U.K. and in the United
States of America.
4. Wage rates must be related to the cost of living and in this connection, whereas the cost of living measured by the official consumer price index had risen by only seven points between 1964
and July this year, the index of wage rates compiled by the Labour Department showed, by the end of June, an increase of fifty three points over the average for 1964, illustrating a substantial
increase in wages in real terms.
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