Wage Issue

Today is increment payday and everybody in the office receives a letter together with the usual computerised payslip announcing their increment for the year. It's one of the two sensitive times of the year where everyone has expectations and then usually gets disappointed...I doubt there are many out there thinking that they are being paid very well and that the increment rate or bonus payout is fair or satisfactory.

There are many protests happening around Hong Kong regarding the amount to be set as the minimum wage. Someone in the government side suggested HKD20/hr and had his whole family cursed by the workers. Then after much research on the market rate, they again suggested that HKD24/hr is fair. The workers and their representative unions are asking for HKD33/hr. Employers complain that's too expensive and suggest that it will be better to let the wage be set by the market forces instead.

What's the point of setting the minimum wage? Ok, let's say the government set the minimum wage at HKD33/hr, then the employers start to employ less workers to cut operation costs, and because of that unemployment rate goes up. Unemployed workers start to get desperate and offer to work for less, but the employers are still not employing because they cannot pay less than the stipulated rate...so what happens? I think it's really stupid. Why not let the market decides the rate by the forces of demand and supply?

I think the employment contract is a contract binding the employer and the employee. If the employee thinks that the company is underpaying him, he will try to find a better paying job and when he finds it, he resigns. If the company thinks that he is indispensable, they will try to retain him by matching his new offer or pay higher...but that will only happens when there is really a new offer. If the company thinks that they can do without that employee, they will let him leave and then gets someone else to take over or use a lower rate to employ another. This happens when the employee is over-qualified for the job.

Some companies pay more than the market rate so as to attract the best employees but they will not hestitate to fire when the employee does not perform. My company is different, they will pay the minimum market rate, gives the minimum welfare and fringe benefits so turnover rate is quite high but nobody has been indispensable to the company so far. So the question is : "Does the company need the employees more or does the employees need the company more?"

My first trip to the US.

Fishermen Wharf - Pier 39

Dungeness Crabs

Pearl from my chosen oyster!

Returned from a 5-day trip to San Francisco exactly a week ago and is finally feeling better today to be able to get some school work done and also do some blogging. I caught a terrible cold in SF...

SF's trip was a "been there, did that" kind of trip. Have heard so much good things about SF but have not been there or anywhere in the US, so I decided that maybe it's time to take a trip and see for myself what's the big deal about the US. Hubby was half-hearted about the trip, he would prefer going to Japan instead but he was accommodating, especially since we probably won't be able to go anywhere with me starting the IVF cycle soon...

The weather was terrible in SF, it was chilly, rainy and really nothing like how I'd imagined it to be. We would probably had enjoyed the trip much better if the weather had been better. Anyway, we went to all the must-see places; we went to the Fishermen Wharf, saw the Alcatraz from there, ate the famous Dungeness crabs, watched the lazy sea lions at Pier 39, picked an oyster to get my very first pearl...

We rode the famous cable cars up and town the hilly streets of SF, went to Chinatown and Japantown, and had a very long walk at the Golden Gate Park where there were lots of beautiful Cherry Blossoms trees. At Union Square, we shopped at Victoria Secrets, Macy's and Nordstrom. I really like it that people can bring their dogs everywhere in the city, even into departmental stores! In Hong Kong, we can't even keep pet dogs in public housing and most private apartments! And dogs are out of bounds to most parks! Crazy!

Chinatown

Japan Town

Victoria's Secret

Anyway, the highlight of our trip was probably the morning when we joined the queue to buy our iPads on the opening day at the Apple store. There were 2 lines, one for the reservations and one for the walk-ins, and of course we belong to the walk-in line...we were told that the reservation line will be given priority to go in once the store opened at 9am and we will be going in later. Nevertheless, we managed to get into the store by 10:30am and walked out with our iPads at 11am! We were very pleased with the service at Apple, they served us Krispy Kreme donuts and Starbucks coffee while we were queueing, and we get our very own salesperson and technical instructor inside the store! One thing that really impressed me about the trip to the US was the service quality of the service staff everywhere and most of the people were friendly. There were many homeless beggars and crook-looking blacks in the streets that spoilt the otherwise perfect image of a metropolitan city though...