HONG KONG — Hong Kong passed its first-ever minimum wage law Saturday, a rare departure from the wealthy Chinese financial hub’s free-market philosophy. The move was hailed by union workers as a victory for the territory’s underpaid working class.
No rate has yet been set, but it appears employers will be required to pay at least $3 an hour — well short of the $7.25 guaranteed to workers in the U.S. and the $9 in the United Kingdom and low for one of the most expensive cities in the world.
Thousands of foreign live-in domestic workers also will be excluded from the deal.
But legislator and union organizer Lee Cheuk-yan said it was symbolic, showing that the city was saying “goodbye to shameful wages and embraced social justice for workers. … This means goodbye to unfettered capitalism,” he said.
China decided to preserve Hong Kong’s capitalist system when Britain returned the territory in 1997.
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