The Hong Kong government has announced a meagre 2.2% increase in the statutory minimum wage for migrant domestic workers, from HK$4,990 (USD 642) to HK$5,100 (USD 657) — the smallest rise in three years. For over a decade, wage increases have hovered around HK$100 annually, regardless of economic booms or downturns. A decade ago, that amount could have covered three meals a day. Now, half of it vanishes with just one breakfast.
The long-term picture is even starker. From 1997 to 2025, migrant domestic workers’ minimum wage has risen by only 38%, while Hong Kong’s Composite Consumer Price Index (CPI) jumped by 43%. Meanwhile, the median monthly income for local workers more than doubled, from HK$10,000 (USD 1,287) in 1997 to HK$20,000 (USD 2,574) in 2024. The message is clear: while the cost of living has surged, migrant domestic workers’ wages have been left far behind.
Even more scandalous is the situation with food allowances. For the second year in a row, the government has frozen the monthly allowance at HK$1,236. There’s no transparent mechanism, no published criteria, and no accountability. At this frozen rate, workers have only HK$41.2 (USD 5) a day for food, just HK$13.7 (USD 1.8) per meal. That won’t even buy a Filet-O-Fish at McDonald’s, now priced at HK$14. A typical two-dish rice box costs HK$43 — meaning the allowance barely covers a third of a meal.
Unlike the minimum wage, which is reviewed based on economic and labour market indicators, food allowance adjustments are entirely opaque. Over the past decade, the allowance has increased by just 19%, while food prices have risen by 27%, eroding workers’ purchasing power year after year. In real terms, today’s allowance is worth only around HK$970 (USD125) compared to 2016. The Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic Workers Unions (FADWU) has called for the allowance to be raised to HK$2,700 (USD 348) to match real living costs, but the government has not acted.
Other places have set fairer standards. Singapore, for example, requires employers to provide three balanced meals a day, specifying portions such as four slices of bread for breakfast and, for lunch and dinner, one bowl of rice, three-quarters of a cup of vegetables, a palm-sized portion of meat, and fruit. Hong Kong, by contrast, simply requires employers to provide “food or an allowance”, without specifying what that actually means. There is no regulation of meal frequency, quality, or nutritional content. In one case, the worker complained that she had been given just a single slice of bread a day, and the employer still claimed they had fulfilled the obligation.
More than 300,000 migrant domestic workers keep Hong Kong households running. They free up hundreds of thousands of local workers to join the labour force. Yet their wages trail far behind inflation, and their food allowance remains frozen, a clear sign of systemic neglect.
This is not just a numbers issue. It’s about dignity and justice. Migrant domestic workers are essential to Hong Kong’s economy and families. Treating them as disposable or invisible is unacceptable. If this neglect continues, Hong Kong risks turning these workers into modern-day bonded labourers under a broken system.