CHI 114

Introduction to Social and Political Studies

Topic: (1) With reference to the state of

relative poverty in Hong Kong, examine
how typical a social issue it is. An adoption
of a sociological perspective to develop
arguments in your writing will certainly
merit solid scores.

Student Name: Chan Ching Yu

Student Number: 200714143H

Table of Content
Introduction P.3

The definition of relative poverty in Hong Kong P.3-4

The reasons of income inequality and poverty in Hong Kong in

general P.4-5
 The Working Poor P.5-7

The Feminization of Poverty in Hong Kong P.7-8

Intergenerational Poverty P.8-10

Social Exclusion P.10-11

The suggested solution tackling poverty P.11-12

Conclusion P.12

References P.12

Introduction
Poverty is a hot issue of Hong Kong. But what the matter it is ? Are you living in the
poverty? How serious it is and is it difficult to overcome? Now I would like to state
the definition of relative poverty in Hong Kong, the reasons of poverty, what kinds of
poverty is existing.

The definition of relative poverty in Hong Kong

There is no single definition of poverty. Poverty is divided into two types, Absolute
Poverty and Relative Poverty. The former one means when a person is so deprived of
 resources to meet their daily requirements that their survival may be threatened.1
Meanwhile, the latter one means even though the earnings of poor can keep the live
hood, their living standard is lower. Thus, Relative Poverty reflects unfair distribution
of resources. People live in relative poverty not only lack of resources, but also are
excluded from normal social lifestyle. This concept is come from British Fabian.2

Our main focus is on relative poverty as most poor in Hong Kong have lived in
relative poverty instead of absolute poverty.

There are 1.26million poor in Hong Kong, about one out five Hong Kong people.
What is poor? People are poor that their income is lesser than half of Median. Median
2008 is reported as $10,500 HKD dollars, so people are poor that if their income less
than $5260 HKD dollars.3

The poverty is also including people that are taking the Comprehensive Social
Security Assistance (CSSA)

Moreover, Gini Coefficient is a common measurement to indicate that the inequality

of income distribution. The coefficient varies between 0, which reflects complete
equality and 1, which indicates complete inequality (one person has all the income or
consumption, all others have none). 4 When it is below 0.2, the income distribution is
definitely equal, 0.3-0.4 is reasonably equal, and 0.4-0.5 indicated that the gap is
relatively wide, 0.6 or above means the gap is quite wide.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong has already reached to 0.533 since 2006, it is not only higher
than the U.S and western European countries, but also higher than some developing
regions. HK has become the most unequal distribution of income in Asia.

150,000 families have monthly incomes of HK$3,000 or less; 13 percent of workers

earn HK$4,000 or less; only 11 percent of workers have incomes in excess of

1
Absolute Poverty 2008.Oxfam Cyber School. 8.Dec.2008
〈http://www.cyberschool.oxfam.org.hk/eng/glossary.php?cod=1〉
2
Hung,Wong. 〝The definition of Relative Poverty.〞The definition of Poverty and measurement: Overseas
and Hong Kong Experience. Feb.2005. 8.Dec.2008
〈http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr04-05/chinese/hc/sub_com/hs51/papers/hs510223cb2-915-04-c.pdf〉
3
〝Survey: 70% Grass-Roots income below Poverty Line.〞Yahoo!News .13.Oct.2008. 6.Dec.2008
〈http://hk.news.yahoo.com/article/081012/4/8o86.html〉
4
Measuring inequality.2008 Worldbank.org..6.Dec.2008
〈http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTPOVERTY/EXTPA/0,,contentMDK:202389
91~menuPK:492138~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:430367,00.html〉
HK$30,000 (so who is doing all that shopping?)5

However, Hong Kong enjoys the highest living standard and the Hong Kong person
per capita is $31,610 (World Bank, 2007). Why there is a great population of poverty?
The reasons would be stated as follow.

The reasons of income inequality and poverty in Hong Kong in general

Some people criticize that since the taxation system is favor well-off people, lower
class need to pay more tax, but poverty need not to pay tax, so this problem would not
be discussed here.

The main reason is the welfare is not obviously sufficient. The SAR government
never provide statutory minimum wage, limited working hours and recently enact
equal opportunities legislation, which can reduce the monopoly of giant firms. And
there is no unemployment benefit and no state pension (except for civil servants).

What is more, factories migrated into mainland from Hong Kong and mainland
workers flood in Hong Kong therefore Hong Kong labors lower their prices to
compete with their mainland counterparts.

Besides, there is including increase numbers of singleton elderly, many of them are
not supported, such as household money, by family. Many of them education level is
quite low so their income may have been decreased in middle age since they cannot
compete with professional and managerial people that with tertiary education.

Moreover, Hong Kong University Professor Chow Wing-sun indicated that there is no
decent population policy in Hong Kong that one- third workers only Form.3
graduated or lower.6

The shift in working field from manufacturing to financial factor is also a reason.
Incomes in financial services are more dispersed (i.e. between very high and very low
earners) than in manufacturing, hence the Gini coefficient for society as a whole rose.7
5
〝Distribution of wealth so poor〞The Standard. 03.Oct.2007. 6.Dec.2008.
〈http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=15&art_id=54360&sid=15557321&con_type=3〉
6
〝United Nation: Hong Kong has got the worst inequality in Asia Scholar warned that will harm
stability of society〞Apple Daily.25.Oct.2008.6.Dec.2008
〈http://appledaily.atnext.com/template/apple/art_main.cfm?iss_id=20081025&sec_id=4104&subsec_id=1273
1&art_id=11764269〉
7
Inequality in Hong Kong . 2006. Hong Kong Democratic Foundation.6.Dec.2008
〈http://www.hkdf.org/pr.asp?func=show&pr=169〉
The theories of Structural Mobility can explain the situation.

Poverty includes working poor, feminization on poverty and intergenerational

poverty. I would like to explain these kinds of poverty as follow.

The Working Poor

There are 240 thousands working poor and 170 thousands working poor families in
Hong Kong. Oxfam indicated that the number increased double during 1997-2007.

The story of a waitress, Ms.Ha may clearly tell us the situation of working poor.
『All of four members in family rely on my modest salary, $5,800 dollars, it is not enough
at all!』Waitress Ms.Ha has been worked for years since her husband has got sacked.
『The rent, Water and Sewage Tariff and the electricity bills has cost me about $2000
dollars every month. And I have to pay the lunch fee and other expense of my two
children, there is only about $2000 left every month. Now I have to live with the saving
which I saved years ago.』 She said that she works 12 hours every day, the time of rest is
inadequate that made her eyes are so dry. Therefore, she never go out for lunch and she go
to work and back home are both by foot, it takes her an half hour each time.

The unemployment rate is 3.2%, it is quite low for a state, but the salary is also quite low
and rarely rises.

By Oxfam report, the hour salary of grass-root labor is not more than $20. They have to
work 35 hours or above per week.
 Chain fast food shops $15-18 per hour (Monthly $3,100-$3,800)
 Shopping Centre Cleaner $20 per hour (Monthly $4,160)
 Chain Chinese cuisine restaurant $18-$22 per hour (Monthly $3,800-$4,000)
 Mansion Cleaner $20 per hour (Monthly $3,600)
 Leaflet Distributor $15 per hour (Monthly $3,000)

Moreover, by the legco report, in 2005, 40-49 years old people is the largest group of
labor in the working poor family, 80,700 people. 60 years old or above people is the
largest group of unemployed in the working poor family, 302,900 people, the group of
40-49 years old people comes the second, 106,000 people.8

8
Legislative Council〝Chapter 3 Working Poor in Hong Kong 〞The report of the working poor. Feb.2006.
8.Dec.2008
〈http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr05-06/chinese/hc/papers/hc0210cb2-1002-c.pdf〉
Working poor has existed in a wide variety fields, including hawker, domestic helper,
cleaner, postman, guard security, construction site labor, package labor, logistic labor.

And the Oxfam report also indicated that working poor families live in Yuen Long
(18,400 people), Tuen Mun (17,500 people), Kwun Tong (13,900 people), Kwai Tsing
(13,800 people) and Sha Tin (13,300 people). That means many working poor live in
New Territories East and West, Kowloon East.

The Oxfam report indicated that the reasons why there is a lot of working poor. Since
1980”s, Hong Kong factories migrated into the mainland, in 1990”s the construction
industry was unstable and mainland and other foreign labors immigrated to Hong
Kong, therefore labors of the construction industry and manufacturing industry
encountered half-unemployed and unemployed.

After 97 Asia Financial Crisis, the number of working poor labors has increased
obviously since government has implemented privatization and left corporation
manage the public institutions, but some corporations exploited the labors. For
instance, The Link, it took over all public shopping center, wet market and parking
since 2005. It has been revealed that the salary offered is too low.9

Besides, the social mobility of grass-root labors is lower and lesser than before.
Labors once had got insufficient workload or got sacked, they no longer could easily
enter the market again or they become non-full time workers.

There are much more temporary/part time/contract-based jobs, much lesser full time
jobs. The non-full time workers cannot be protected by welfare in Labor Legislation,
hardly negotiated with employer and work in tough condition.

The theories of Capitalism can explain why entrepreneur exploit the grass-root labors.
Capitalism refers private ownership of the means of production and the entrepreneur
sees profit as incentive. In purpose to maximize the benefit, they would like to acquire
cheap materials, and utilize cheap labor to achieve unlimited expansion and
investment to accumulate capital.10
The Feminization of Poverty in Hong Kong
In 2002, the population of income less than $5,000, 76.8% is female. Meanwhile, in

9
〝The Link is suspect for exploiting labors.〞Sina.Com. 26.Nov.2007. 8.Dec.2008
〈http://news.sina.com.hk/cgi-bin/nw/show.cgi/2/1/1/564073/1.html〉
10
JCM223week13.ppt.4.Dec.2008.Index of/~Kam. 9.Dec.2008
〈http://home.chuhai.hk/~Kam/〉
2003, the number of woman that is taking CSSA is bigger than the man’s.

Analyst indicated that woman in poverty have to face bigger difference than man and
there are many reasons behind that.

First, it is the matter of Gender Socialization. People has been Socialization since they
are infant. It is the process by the person learn the culture, the values and norms of
their society. The Gender Socialization indicated that since parents treat baby boy and
baby girl differently, the style, color of clothes babies wear, toys they play, the
punishments they have when they have〝improper〞 gender behaviors. The biological
difference are changed into social values and people are learnt to be socially
recognizable MAN and WOMAN.

Socialization cultivate the Norms to the person, Norms mean that teach people that
what people have to do and do not, there are many guidelines that direct conduct in
particular situations. Such as girl and women are supposed to wear dress.11

Furthermore, Woman is supposed to be caretaker inside the home. The role of

caretaker is a lifelong process, therefore, the talent and skills of a woman cannot be
developed since she has got many chores to do.

However, there are more and more women go out to work. Because of the expected
role of caretaker, they have still to do the chores, taking care the children and elderly,
so there is a Double Burden exist among women.

Since they to take care the children and elderly, most of them choose to do part-time
or flexible working-hours job. Unfortunately, those jobs are not protected by Labor
Legislation, rarely have welfare and low salary. Their salaries are lower than men
even though they are in the same occupation. In 2005, the median of women is lesser
than men $2000. And more and more women have to work for long hours, there are
one-fourth women have to work more than 60 hours per week.

And there are more and more women be the head of household since they may be
divorced or be widows. They encounter bigger difference than men face as their
salary are lower than men and they have to take care the children.12

11
Giddens,Anthony.Duneier,Mitchell.Appelbaum, Richard P.. Introduction to Sociology(5th edition).
New York, London: W.W.Norton & Company,2005. 97-98

12
〝The reasons of the feminization of poverty〞. Legislative Council Secretariat . 2005-2006. 9.Dec.2008.
The report of Hong Kong University indicated that most immigrants from mainland
are female as they married to the local men. Most of them are low skill and secondary
school graduated or lower, they have chosen to do the low salary jobs.

There are some theories can explain why woman has to do low salary job. Modern
bureaucracies are characterized by occupational gender segregation,Vertical and
Horizontal Segregation. Vertical Segregation refers to the tendency for women to be
concentrated in jobs with little authority and room for advancement, while men
occupy more powerful and influential positions,such as secretary. This situation is
also called as Glass-ceiling, woman can hardly be promoted and only watches men to
be promoted.

And Horizontal segregation refers to the tendency for men and women to occupy
different categories of job. For example, women largely dominate in domestic and
routine clerical positions, while men are clustered in semi-skilled and skilled manual
positions.13

Intergenerational Poverty
Intergenerational poverty refers to the poverty induced by the socially/economically
differences of a person’s parents. It therefore follows that tackling intergenerational
poverty would involve the provision of support and opportunities essential to a
person’s sound, balanced and sustainable development but which support and
opportunities would, if not for the intervention, be beyond reach as a result of the
socially/economically challenges his/her parents face. Since life cycle development is
cumulative, the earlier the compensatory intervention takes place, the less will be the
impact of deprivation on the development of a child/youth.14
Since parents live below the poverty line, they cannot support their children go to the
tutorial school, extra-curriculum activities, accessing hi-technology materials that can
helping the study. Thus, their children performance in school may be worse than
children that are from middle-class or upper-class families. Since children cannot go
to college, they may have to do low-salary jobs and never get out of the poverty line.

〈http://www.legco.gov.hk/yr05-06/chinese/sec/library/0506fs07c.pdf〉

13
Giddens,Anthony.Duneier,Mitchell.Appelbaum, Richard P.. Introduction to Sociology(5th edition).
New York, London: W.W.Norton & Company,2005. 286

14
Reducing Risk of Intergenerational Poverty .2005.Commission on Poverty. 8.Dec.2008.
<http://www.cop.gov.hk/eng/intergenerational.htm>
There is an American example, boys that are grown up in families with average
incomes had annual income that were more than 50% higher than were those of boys
raised in poor families after controlling for family and neighborhood background.15

This news indicated that 40% of 0-5 year-old children and 55% of 6-14 year-old
children living in families that are taking CSSA or the earning is equivalent to the
amount of CSSA. It pointed out 50, 0000 Hong Kong children live in poverty.
It also indicated that the main reason of intergenerational poverty is the poverty of
family. It includes family taking CSSA, Single-parent family, new immigrant family.
16

The concept of Social Mobility can be applied in this issue. Social Mobility refers to
the movement of individuals and groups between different class positions as a result
of changes in occupation, wealth, or income. Scholars are focus on people’s own
careers, how far they move up or down the socioeconomic scale in the course of their
working lives. This is called Intergenerational mobility. Alternatively, we can analyze
where children are on the scale compared with their parents or grandparents. Mobility
across the generations is called intergenerational mobility.17 Since the poor children
lack of resources for development, they may not promote to the middle class, so their
social mobility is quite narrow.

The Commission on Poverty makes many ways in order to reduce the

intergenerational poverty. That includes setting a fund for children development, a
plan for the unemployed youth, strengthen the support to the poor family and parent.18

The story of Ms.Wong may clear explain the situation. She always hopes that her
children can complete the college and wipe out of poverty, but now she has no hope
since her daughter performance on school was getting worse as she is not good at
English. She got six scores in CE exam last year, will be retaking the exam this year.
Another child, her son is studying Form.2. His performance on school is so so. She
said she has to work for long hours every day so she cannot take care her children and
15
〝The Dynamics of Childhood Poverty.〞 The Future of Children .2008. 9.Dec.2008
〈http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2827/information_show.htm?doc_id=72162〉
16
〝There are 50,0000 children in poverty〞Orientaldaily. 2008. 9.Dec.2008.
〈http://www.economists.com.hk/discuz/viewthread.php?tid=7661〉
17
Giddens,Anthony.Duneier,Mitchell.Appelbaum, Richard P.. Introduction to Sociology(5th edition).
New York, London: W.W.Norton & Company,2005. 220-221
18
Reducing Risk of Intergenerational Poverty .2005.Commission on Poverty. 8.Dec.2008.
<http://www.cop.gov.hk/eng/intergenerational.htm>
her son play outside for 4-5 hours every day. Ms.Wong hope her daughter can get
awesome result in this year exam, and she will not force her daughter to work as
Ms.Wong does not want her daughter get back on her own track, doing low salary but
long working hours job. When she was asked when she can get wipe of CSSA. She
gave no answer.

Thus, government gave out 3 billion to set a Child Development Fund, helping
children to save money, planning their goal. But Hong Kong University professor
Chow Wing Sun indicated that 3 billion is not enough.19

Social Exclusion
Since I stated three kind of poverty above, now I would like to explain the outcome of
poverty. The poor have to face Social Exclusion and their psychology will be
oppressive.

The idea of Social Exclusion refers to new sources of inequality-ways in which

individuals may become cut off from involvement in the wider society. It is a broader
concept than that of the underclass and has the advantage that is emphasizes
processes- mechanisms of exclusion. For instance, people who live in a poor housing
project, with band 3 schools and few employment opportunities in the area, may
effectively be denied opportunities for self-betterment that most people in society
have. It is also different from poverty as such. It focuses attention on a broad range of
factors that prevent individuals or groups from having opportunities that are open to
the majority of the population.20

For instance, many people think the poor that is taking CSSA, is wasting money of
taxpayer. And poor is labeled as lazy people who never intend to be more hard-
working. So, some people think that poor do not deserve any sympathy.

The suggested solution tackling poverty

1. Minimum Wage. It is the idea of government legislate a bill to compulsory how
many salary at least should employee give. The issue has been discussed for many
years, and be the focus of Policy Address this year. Some organization indicated
that the minimum wage should set in $33 per hour because in order to support a

19
〝Eliminating intergenerational poverty is a challenge for SAR government.〞Migrant.Coolloud.Org.
21.Jun,2007. 9.Dec.2008.
〈http://www.alanleong.net/public/contents/article?revision_id=6802&item_id=6801〉
20
Giddens,Anthony.Duneier,Mitchell.Appelbaum, Richard P.. Introduction to Sociology(5th edition).
New York, London: W.W.Norton & Company,2005. 223
 family in a decent way.

2. Maximum Working Hours. It is the idea of government legislate a bill to limited

the working hours that employer should order. The idea is considerate for
worker’s health and let them have time to take care the family. If it is
implemented, the workers can have the enough rest and time to advance their
qualification. If it is necessary to order the workers to over time to work, the OT
salary should be higher than salary the worker takes.

3. This is specific for tackling woman in poverty. Gender-responsive budget analysis

is suggested when it comes to prepare the budget for the year. Australia has used it
since 1980”s and other countries follow suit. That gives more consideration to the
women.21

4. Old Age Income Protection (OAIP) Scheme is suggested. That can protect elderly.
The scheme is planned with 50-year projections on population structure and cash
flow, which is sustainable to tackle the peak of aging population. The employer
and employee have to put 2.5% of relevant income every month, and MPF scheme
is reduced to the half. It can instead the CSSA and fruit money, and the elderly can
take abouy$2,500.22

If the suggestion is implemented, that may make many people no longer be poor, and
more resources to take care their children, so that can also reduce intergenerational
poverty.

Conclusion
The essay includes the reasons of poverty, the three kinds of poverty. It consists a
wide variety information from NGOs and government, show a wide range statistics
and example to indicate what the poverty is. Since we have depth knowledge on
poverty, we should give effort to reduce the poverty, that can let society be
homogenous, people become happier.

References
〝Week 12 Poverty in Hong Kong〞FOSSOOO3 Human Security in Global Context.
24.Nov.2004. 9.Dec.2008.
21
〝Study on feminization on poverty〞Alan Leong online office.25.Jul.2007. 9.Dec.2008.
〈http://www.alanleong.net/public/contents/article?revision_id=6802&item_id=6801〉
22
〝Old age protection〞Pensionforall.org..2008.9.Dec.2008.
〈http://www.pensionforall.org.hk/html/uploads/old_age_income_protection.ppt〉
〈http://www.hku.hk/cas/bc/Week%2012%20Poverty%20in%20Hong%20Kong.pdf〉

〝Advice on Legislative Council study on Commission on Poverty〞Woman Development

Association Limited.27.Apr.2008. 9.Dec.2008.
〈http://www.hkwda.org.hk/cp_08_04.htm〉

〝Working Poor near us〞cyberschool.oxfam.org. Mar.2006. 9.Dec.2008.

〈http://www.cyberschool.oxfam.org.hk/downloads/2006_spring_B.pdf〉