{"id":19372,"date":"2021-12-09T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T01:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/2021\/12\/09\/helperplace-new-survey-reveals-the-loosen-travel-restrictions-is-not-enough-to-cover-the-demand-of-domestic-helper\/"},"modified":"2021-12-09T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T01:00:00","slug":"helperplace-new-survey-reveals-the-loosen-travel-restrictions-is-not-enough-to-cover-the-demand-of-domestic-helper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/2021\/12\/09\/helperplace-new-survey-reveals-the-loosen-travel-restrictions-is-not-enough-to-cover-the-demand-of-domestic-helper\/","title":{"rendered":"HelperPlace New Survey Reveals the Loosen Travel Restrictions is Not Enough to Cover the Demand of Domestic Helper"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> \n<\/p>\n<div lang=\"en\">\n<ul>\n<li>The looser travel restrictions for&#13;<br \/>\nthe domestic helper is not enough to cover the high demand of local families; given&#13;<br \/>\nthe current difficulty and cost to hire overseas helpers, local helpers are&#13;<br \/>\nconstantly in shortage<\/li>\n<li>Despite frozen minimum wage, 9.60% annual average increase in&#13;<br \/>\ndomestic helper monthly salary, so employers need to offer a higher&#13;<br \/>\nsalary to easier find a helper<\/li>\n<li>Domestic helpers working conditions&#13;<br \/>\nneed concern, especially under pandemic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>HONG KONG SAR &#8211;\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.media-outreach.com\/\"><b>Media OutReach<\/b><\/a>\u00a0&#8211;\u00a09&#13;<br \/>\nDecember 2021 &#8211;\u00a0For the 3rd consecutive year, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.helperplace.com\/\">HelperPlace<\/a> has been surveying the average monthly salary of foreign&#13;<br \/>\ndomestic helpers working in Hong Kong. This year, HelperPlace conducted an&#13;<br \/>\nonline survey among domestic helpers in Hong Kong from January 2021 to December&#13;<br \/>\n2021 and received over 12,501 responses. One of the objectives is to measure&#13;<br \/>\nthe impact of the pandemic on the job market. The results provide insights into&#13;<br \/>\nthe actual average salary, factors affecting salary, expectations, and working&#13;<br \/>\nconditions of helpers in 2021.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img width=\"500\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images.media-outreach.com\/Thumb\/500x0\/204997\/Eng-2.jpg#image-204997\" class=\"lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\"\/><\/p>\n<p><noscript><img src=\"https:\/\/images.media-outreach.com\/Thumb\/500x0\/204997\/Eng-2.jpg#image-204997\" width=\"500\"\/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p><b>The Significant Impact of the&#13;<br \/>\nIncrease in Salary in 2021<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>HelperPlace&#8217;s annual salary survey&#13;<br \/>\nhas been conducted three years in a row. In 2021, the average actual monthly&#13;<br \/>\nsalary for a foreign domestic helper is HK$5,288. The average monthly salary for&#13;<br \/>\n2019 and 2020 are $4,765 and $4,825, respectively. It reveals a significant&#13;<br \/>\nannual increase of 9.60% from 2020 to 2021 compared to only 1.26% from 2019 to&#13;<br \/>\n2020. Since 2019 September, the minimum monthly salary has been frozen at HK$4,630&#13;<br \/>\nby the government.<\/p>\n<p>In the context of the travel&#13;<br \/>\nrestrictions, the shortage of overseas helpers has brought up the market&#13;<br \/>\nsalary. Even though the government has loosened up the restrictions, the&#13;<br \/>\npopulation of overseas workers has decreased by over 20,000 in less than a year.&#13;<br \/>\nThe struggle to book quarantine rooms for helpers due to its limited number,&#13;<br \/>\nthe long process, and the extra cost of HK$15,000 (fees for quarantine hotel&#13;<br \/>\nand food) to hire an overseas helper push employers to find other solutions. As&#13;<br \/>\na result, employers have a preference for hiring foreign domestic helpers who&#13;<br \/>\nare already settled in Hong Kong. Therefore this phenomenon creates a large&#13;<br \/>\ndemand for a limited pool of workers. The results show that the impact of the&#13;<br \/>\nCOVID on domestic helper salary has been fully reflected in 2021.<\/p>\n<p><b>Territorial Difference of Salary<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The survey shows the territorial&#13;<br \/>\ndifference in average salary among domestic helpers. The Hong Kong Island has&#13;<br \/>\nthe highest average salary with HK$5,612, followed by Kowloon of HK$5,148, and&#13;<br \/>\nthe least in New Territories with HK$5,093.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><b>Factors of Domestic Helper Salary<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Besides salary, the survey also&#13;<br \/>\nconducted interviews on the working hours, no. of kid, and the years of&#13;<br \/>\nhelpers&#8217; experience. The average salary increases with the number of years of&#13;<br \/>\nexperience of helpers. However, the results show a shocking negative&#13;<br \/>\nrelationship between workload in relation to salary. The higher the working&#13;<br \/>\nhour and the number of kids in the employer&#8217;s family, the lower the salary. It&#13;<br \/>\nreflects that domestic helper salary is not reflecting their workload.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img width=\"500\" data-src=\"https:\/\/images.media-outreach.com\/Thumb\/500x0\/204990\/Eng-1.jpg#image-204990\" class=\"lazyload\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\"\/><\/p>\n<p><noscript><img src=\"https:\/\/images.media-outreach.com\/Thumb\/500x0\/204990\/Eng-1.jpg#image-204990\" width=\"500\"\/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<p>Based on the survey, the hiring&#13;<br \/>\nchannel is one of the important factors for salary. The average salary ranks&#13;<br \/>\nlowest for the agency ($4,683), then online platform ($5,393), and highest for&#13;<br \/>\nemployer referral with $5,418. This can be explained by the fact that direct&#13;<br \/>\nhiring through online platforms and employer referral can save a considerable&#13;<br \/>\namount of agency fees, create more trust, and result in higher monthly&#13;<br \/>\nsalaries.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>The working hour and working&#13;<br \/>\nconditions still need improvement<\/b><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The survey also reflects on the long&#13;<br \/>\nworking hours issue and poor working conditions of some domestic helpers in&#13;<br \/>\nHong Kong. For instance, nearly 61% of respondents work over 12 hours a day.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>According to Hong Kong law,&#13;<br \/>\nemployers are obligated to provide food allowance or free food to domestic&#13;<br \/>\nhelpers. 81% of the survey respondents said their employers provide free food,&#13;<br \/>\nand 12% out of them said that they do not have enough food provided by employers.&#13;\n<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For the living conditions, most&#13;<br \/>\nrespondents either have their separate room (56%) or share a room with kids&#13;<br \/>\n(20%), elderlies (2%), or other workers (10%). However, around 11% of&#13;<br \/>\nrespondents stay in the living room, bathroom, or kitchen of the employer&#8217;s&#13;<br \/>\nhouse. About 1% of respondents are live-out, although the law forbids it.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite the poor working and living&#13;<br \/>\nconditions for some domestic helpers, over 70% of respondents find the&#13;<br \/>\nrelationship with the employer at least acceptable or better.<\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Forecast for next year<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>There is no doubt that the travel&#13;<br \/>\nrestriction will persist for a few more months. This may result in a more&#13;<br \/>\nsevere shortage of local helpers, assuming the same domestic helper quotas for&#13;<br \/>\nentering Hong Kong. In the last 3 months, it was not rare to see workers asking&#13;<br \/>\nfor more than HK$7,000 per month. <b\/><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>Conclusion<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p>Despite the higher bargaining power&#13;<br \/>\nfor a better salary, the local helpers who have finished their 2-year contracts&#13;<br \/>\nare also looking for better working conditions, such as separate rooms, lower&#13;<br \/>\nworkloads, and locations in Hong Kong Island to conveniently hang out with&#13;<br \/>\nfriends on weekends. It is undeniable that employers who have better offers can&#13;<br \/>\nattract domestic helpers to start or continue working for them. It will create&#13;<br \/>\nmore difficulties for the middle class and lower-income families.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.media-outreach.com\/news\/2021-12-09\/109734\/helperplace-new-survey-reveals-the-loosen-travel-restrictions-is-not-enough-to-cover-the-demand-of-domestic-helper\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The looser travel restrictions for&#13; the domestic helper is not enough to cover the high demand of local families; given&#13; the current difficulty and cost to hire overseas helpers, local helpers are&#13; constantly in shortage Despite frozen minimum wage, 9.60% annual average increase in&#13; domestic helper monthly salary, so employers need to offer a higher&#13; &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19373,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19372"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eodishasamachar.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}