{"id":20218,"date":"2019-04-30T19:54:56","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T11:54:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/?p=20218"},"modified":"2019-05-01T20:05:14","modified_gmt":"2019-05-01T12:05:14","slug":"hong-kongs-poverty-worsens-is-there-a-solution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2019\/04\/30\/20218\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong\u2019s poverty worsens \u2013 is there a solution?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If capitalism can\u2019t afford a living wage and a pension for working people then we can\u2019t afford capitalism!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Pasha, Socialist Action (CWI in Hong Kong)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hong Kong is a\nrich city. In fact, it\u2019s the world\u2019s richest city. But it has long been\nriddled with high levels of poverty, which worsen as years go by. A recent report published by the Hong Kong government\nadmits there are 1.37 million people\nliving in poverty, with today\u2019s poverty rate of 20.1 percent the highest in\nnine years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of every\nthree elderly people is living in poverty, yet the government decided earlier\nthis year to raise the age limit for receiving elderly CSSA from 60 to 65 years \u2013 a blatant rollback of social\nbenefits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At a recent\nLegislative Council (Legco) public hearing, 67-year old retired civil servant\nMrs Wong described how her\nHK$3,000 per month pension is not nearly enough to make ends meet, and how she couldn\u2019t find a job in\nthe past two years,\nforcing her to scavenge for scrap cardboard on the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Universal pension\nsystem<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In response,\nSecretary for Labour and Welfare Law Chikwong said coldly, \u201cYou could seek\njob assistance from the Labour Department.\u201d Such is the attitude of Hong Kong\u2019s top officials\ntowards the real livelihood issues facing senior citizens. Law, a former leading\nmember of the Democratic Party, has always spoken out against a universal pension system, claiming it would result\nin chronic financial deficits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is utter\nhypocrisy; the white elephant infrastructure projects initiated by the government\nare costing Hong Kong almost its\nentire financial reserves. Yet we never see any government officials speaking\nout against them!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Young people\nare also not protected from the poverty crisis. 12.4 percent of youth in\nHong Kong live in poverty, the highest level since 2010.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although it may\nseem that Hong Kong\u2019s workers enjoy a low unemployment rate,\nlow-paid insecure jobs are becoming more and more prevalent. In 1987, the medium real disposable income of a\nuniversity graduate was HK$17,490. Three decades later, this figure is merely HK$4,492 adjusted for inflation.\nThis massive reduction in real living standards owes much to the sharp increase in property prices and rents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Working poor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over one-third\n(36.4 percent) of working families in Hong Kong are in poverty, which\nexposes the myth that \u201cpoor people are lazy\u201d. Although the statutory minimum wage will increase from HK$34.5 to\nHK$37.5 per hour in May, this amount is far from sufficient to cover basic living costs. According to Oxfam, the\nhourly living wage should be HK$54.7, much higher than the current minimum wage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are\ncurrently 1.07 million workers in Hong Kong (including government outsourced\nlabour) below this definition of a living wage, one-quarter of the total labour force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government\nis one of the main culprits for the rise in working poor, being one the largest employers of super-exploited outsourced labour.\nAll governmental departments combined hire more than 37,000 outsourced workers, 80 percent of them on\nhourly wages of less than HK$36.5, earning between HK$7,000-8,000 a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two months ago a photo of a government outsourced toilet cleaner eating his lunch in the washroom went\nviral on social media. Cleaners in\npublic toilets usually work two shifts. The day shift is nine hours with a\none-hour unpaid lunch break. The night shift is\nsix to seven hours without any lunch break. The cleaner in the video did not have any lunch break and has to eat secretly in the\nwashroom to avoid being penalised. The\ngovernment responded that this arrangement is totally \u201clegal\u201d!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Women<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The situation for women and migrant workers is even\nmore dire. Women in general have a\nhigher poverty rate than men. Aside from factors such as housewives not having\nan income, and the lack of a universal\npension system, the pay disparity between genders is also very high.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to research by the Women\u2019s Foundation, working women on average earn 32 percent less than men. This systemic gender discrimination has forced many women into jobs in auxiliary, precarious and low-paid jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As for Hong Kong\u2019s 380,000 migrant domestic workers, despite the recent hike in their monthly minimum wage to HK$4,520 last year, this is a mere 2.5 percent increase and is still far below the wages of local workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government also wants to import more migrant labour to work in sectors such as construction,\nsecurity, elderly-care services, in order\nto drive down the wages for both local and migrant workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only strong union organisation, insisting all workers have the right to join a union, engage in collective\nbargaining, and fight for a living wage in\nall branches of economy can counter these attempts to drive down wages and\ndivide the working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If we look at GDP (gross domestic product, total\neconomic output) per capita, theoretically\neveryone could share an average wealth of\nHK$30,000 per month. But the reality is that the bosses and the super-rich are\nliterally stealing from the general public,\nleaving workers in hardship and poverty. Hong Kong\u2019s poverty problem is artificial, a result of the collusion between the capitalist\ntycoons and their pro-capitalist\ngovernment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Down with capitalism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on the logic of capitalism, bosses pit workers\nagainst one another, the classic divide-and-rule,\ncausing a race to the bottom in terms of wages and conditions. This maximizes profits for the capitalists. Now both the Beijing and Hong Kong governments are fervently attacking\ndemocratic rights \u2013 to strengthen the capitalist\ndictatorship and stamp out all workers\u2019 struggles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Therefore, workers must unite together, men and women, locals and migrants, against the capitalist order. We should demand massive government investment in public services, a universal pension and living wage for all, all financed by taxing the rich and taking the major tycoon-owned companies and banks into public ownership. This is also linked to fighting for real and full democratic rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of the main weapons we need is a strong democratic trade union movement that can coordinate struggles for an 8-hour workday and a living wage. Unions have\nto be transformed from weak lobbying\ngroups into real workplace organisations that can confront the bosses and defend workers\u2019 rights. A new\nworkers\u2019 party is needed to advance workers\u2019 interests and\nbreak the current deadlock in the democracy struggle \u2013 showing a working-class alternative to the undemocratic rule of the billionaires.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If capitalism can\u2019t afford a living wage and a pension for working people then we can\u2019t afford capitalism!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":20198,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail"],"yoast_head":"\nHong Kong\u2019s poverty worsens \u2013 is there a solution? - China Worker<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/chinaworker.info\/en\/2019\/04\/30\/20218\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hong Kong\u2019s poverty worsens \u2013 is there a solution? 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