Towards fair pay: Secretary for Labour & Welfare Matthew Cheung says the initial statutory minimum wage rate is likely to come into force at the earliest by the end of 2010 or early 2011.

The Minimum Wage Bill will be gazetted June 26 and tabled at the Legislative Council July 8.

Secretary for Labour & Welfare Matthew Cheung said today the initial statutory minimum wage rate is likely to come into force at the earliest by the end of 2010 or early 2011. The bill will exclude all live-in domestic workers and student internships arranged or endorsed by specified educational institutions.

"Our aim is to establish an optimal statutory minimum wage regime which strikes an appropriate balance between forestalling excessively low wages and minimising the loss of low-paid jobs while sustaining Hong Kong's economic growth and competitiveness," Mr Cheung said.

Regarding the exemption of live-in domestic workers, Mr Cheung said the job's distinctive requirements - round-the-clock presence, provision of service-on-demand and the multifarious domestic duties - makes it impossible to ascertain the actual hours worked so as to determine the wages to be paid.

"This will give rise to insurmountable practical difficulties in bringing them under the statutory minimum wage, which would be calculated on an hourly basis," he said.

"Furthermore, the remuneration package for live-in domestic workers is usually distinctive for it includes, on top of wages, in-kind benefits not available to non-live-in workers. Specifically, they are given free accommodation and are spared the cost of commuting between home and workplace. They enjoy free food or food allowance, free medical treatment, and free passage from and to their places of origin. To provide an additional safeguard, the Government has prescribed for them a minimum allowable wage, currently at $3,580."

The bill also proposes to exclude student internships which form a compulsory or elective part of their academic programmes and are required for the award of the academic qualifications in full-time locally-accredited programmes as arranged or endorsed by specified educational institutions.

The bill covers people with disabilities and provides a special arrangement for those whose productivity is impaired by their disabilities. These people are vested under the bill with the right to invoke an assessment of their productivity to help determine whether they should be remunerated at no less than the statutory minimum wage rate.