The statutory minimum wage level should be set at HK$35 per hour, cleaning services companies suggested yesterday. They also said the legislation for minimum wage should apply to all sectors instead of just the cleaning and security sectors in order to avoid labeling effects against the two sectors.

Recently, the Environmental Services Contractors Alliance conducted a survey among its 32 member companies. Fifty-one percent of the companies were paying at least the wage levels as advocated under the Wage Protection Movement - which are the relevant average market rates as stipulated by the government. Owing to a manpower shortage in certain districts, cleaning services companies were paying higher wages to attract workers and the normal range was HK$20-35.

As the Wage Protection Movement has been unsuccessful since its launch two years ago, the government should proceed to legislation, said Catherine Yan, convener of the alliance. If the HK$35 hourly rate is adopted, she said she would expect cleaning companies to raise their offers by about 30 percent, adding that management companies of Grade A offices and luxury flats would not mind the increase as long as the service is good.

She also said workers now earning below HK$35 per hour would benefit most if the rate was adopted. Legislator Wong Kwok-hing, from the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, also opined that the Wage Protection Movement has been unsuccessful because only 1,100 companies have so far joined the movement. He said he hoped the government would honor its pledge by introducing a bill to the Legislative Council no later than March 2009.

Meanwhile, he welcomed the alliance's support for a statutory minimum wage, but added the HK$35 hourly rate (higher than HK$33 as proposed by the federation) was worked out from the angle of cleaning companies.

(HK Edition 10/15/2008 page1)