TNAG-1267-FCO40-1616-Economic-situation-in-Hong-Kong-1983 — Page 197

FC040/1616

Wages and earnings

4.10

Manufacturing wage rates declined

wage rates declined in real terms in

1982, especially towards the latter part of the year. The

favourable influences on real wage rates of the steadily decelerating rate of increase in

increase in consumer

consumer prices and of the

more stable growth rate of the labour force in 1982 were

largely offset by the depressing effects of the world

recession on the domestic export sector. Between March and

(7) December 1982, average wage rates

in the manufacturing sector increased by 5% in money terms, but declined by 2% in

real terms. Similarly, statistics

on payroll (8) per person engaged in manufacturing showed an increase of 9% in

in money terms, but a decline of 1% in real terms, in the twelve months

ending December 1982.

4.11

In the twelve months ending December 1982, payroll

per person engaged in the tertiary services sectors as a whole

rose by 13% in money terms, or 3% in real terms. For example,

/payroll

(7) Starting from March 1982, a new quarterly wage survey has replaced the former half-yearly wage survey. Several improvements have been introduced, including the collection of statistics on wage rates at more frequent intervals, the use of a larger sample to achieve a wider industry coverage and higher accuracy

higher accuracy in the estimates for each

for industry covered, and the inclusion of non-manual workers so

as to provide a more systematic breakdown of statistics on wage rates by occupation. Hence, the new series is not strictly comparable to the old one.

(8)

Total payroll is the amount of direct cash payments that employees receive from their

their employers. It includes wages and salaries, overtime pay, shift allowance, attendance and efficiency bonuses, cost-of-living allowance, food and transportation allowance, year-end and seasonal bonuses, and pay in lieu of leave, etc. Employers' contribution in respect of their employees paid to social security and pension schemes and the benefits received by employees under these schemes are excluded. Profits earned by proprietors and business partners, pensions and payments

and payments to outworkers are also excluded. While wages provide a measure of the price of labour, payroll per person engaged is a measure of per capita earnings.

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