The new crown epidemic has plagued Hong Kong for nearly three years. The government’s strict epidemic prevention policies have caused the economy to suffer, people’s livelihood has declined, and even further exacerbated the disparity between the rich and the poor. . Oxfam released a report on poverty in Hong Kong, which found that the gap between the median monthly income of the poorest and the richest households has widened significantly, revealing that the gap between the two extremes has widened from 34.3 times before the epidemic to 47.3 times in the first quarter of this year, breaking the 44 times set in 2016. times the historical high, pushing the disparity between the rich and the poor to a critical point. The latest monthly income of the poorest group fell below 3,000 yuan, while the monthly income of the richest rose to more than 127,000 yuan, reflecting that the poor are getting poorer under the epidemic, and the poor have cleared their wallets, but the rich are getting richer.
The poor earn $2,700 a month, the rich $127,600
Oxfam released the “Hong Kong Poverty Report: Poverty and Employment in Hong Kong under the Epidemic”, comparing the data from the “General Household Statistics Report” of the Census and Statistics Department from 2019 to the first quarter of this year, comparing the monthly income of the poorest and the richest 10% of the households Median, with the poorest at level 1 and the richest at level 10. The results showed that the income of the poorer group fell more severely. The income of the poorest 10% of households in the first quarter of this year fell by 22.9% compared with that before the outbreak, from $3,500 a month to $2,700. On the contrary, the median monthly income of households in the 7th to 10th grades has increased, and the income of the richest 10% of households has reached 127,600 yuan, an increase of 6.3% compared with 120,000 yuan before the epidemic in 2019. %.
In addition to the widening gap between the rich and the poor, unemployment among the poor is alarmingly high. The unemployment rate of the poor reached 26.1% in the first quarter of this year, more than eight times higher than that of the non-poor, and more than 60% of these poor and unemployed are over 40 years old. Among them, 60% have been unemployed for more than two months, and 25% have been unemployed for more than half a year. In terms of industry distribution, retail, accommodation and catering services, and low-skilled jobs are among the hardest hit areas.
77% of the poor work less than 20 hours a week
In terms of working hours, as many as 77% of the poor worked less than 20 hours a week in the first quarter of this year, an increase of nearly 20% from 59% in 2020, reflecting the continued deterioration of underemployment among grassroots workers. It is worth noting that the economically inactive poor population has also risen sharply, reaching 1.09 million in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 3.2% over 2020. Among them, 466,000 are seniors aged 65 or above, a sharp increase of 15.2% compared with 2020; among the unemployed seniors, one in two is poor. Many children are studying at home due to school suspension and insufficient childcare facilities, making it difficult for nearly 80% of poor women to go out to work. This is one of the reasons why the labor market is understaffed, but unemployment remains high.
Oxfam calls for minimum wage hike to $45.4
Huang Shuohong, project director of Oxfam Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, said that the minimum wage will be frozen in 2019, and the grassroots will be frozen for two years every two years. According to this year’s living wage of 58.9 yuan, the minimum wage of 37.5 yuan is far behind. Mainland cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin, as well as other countries such as the United Kingdom, France and South Korea, have raised the minimum wage during the epidemic. The association calls on the government to raise the minimum wage to 45.4 yuan, implement annual inspections, and extend Temporary Unemployment Support Scheme until the end of the year.
Hope that the entry into the country will be loosened as soon as possible to save tourists
Mo Jiancheng, a spokesman for the political party’s social welfare policy, said that the Oxfam report revealed that the disparity between the rich and the poor has become more and more serious under the epidemic, and the unemployment situation at the grassroots level is particularly worrying. The government’s anti-epidemic measures have put a lot of industries into trouble. Among them, the catering, tourism, retail, stage and event production industries are the most serious, such as underemployment, unpaid leave and unemployment, and a large number of families are in financial difficulties.
With the end of the “Rent Pursuit Prohibition Order”, he expects that there will be a series of merchants who will be chased for rent and “unable to endure” closure. Employees will lose their livelihoods, and the gap between the rich and the poor will be exacerbated. The top priority is that the government must remove all entry quarantine restrictions as soon as possible, implement “0+0”, strengthen overseas publicity, attract tourists to Hong Kong, and restore the market to normal.
