20-03-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
Earnings of Hong Kong's low-income mainland migrants ‘fall below pre-Covid levels'
The earnings of low-income immigrants from mainland China in Hong Kong fell below pre-pandemic levels last year, with the recovery of income levels disrupted by an influx of new workers and a slowdown in consumer spending, a university-led study has found.
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The study, led by Baptist University (HKBU), collected the employment data of 3,236 working-age mainland migrants between 2019 and 2024 through advocacy group the Society for Community Organization (SoCO).
The university found that the median income of such residents stood at HK$15,448 (US$1,988) in 2019, before dipping by 4 per cent in 2020. Earning levels bounced back in 2022, then surpassed pre-Covid figures a year later, but dropped again in 2024.
'When the pandemic just ended, people were positive and there was more spending and cross-border movement, which created a lot of job opportunities,' said Cheng Yuk-shing, the director of HKBU's Centre for Sustainable Development Studies.
'It is worrying to see that this period only lasted for a very short time before [the median salary] dropped again.'
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Cheng suggested that aside from providing short-term assistance to meet the immediate needs of low-income migrants, the government should introduce targeted measures to get them back to work to help reduce poverty in the city.
SoCO deputy director Sze Lai-shan said another reason for the decrease in median earnings could be due to some industries bringing in workers from elsewhere.
