| A1 : | SMW
applies to all employees, whether they are full-time, part-time or casual employees,
and regardless of whether or not they are employed under a continuous contract
(Note 1) as defined in the Employment Ordinance, with the following
exceptions: | * | persons
to whom the Employment Ordinance does not apply (Note 2) |
| * | live-in
domestic workers (Note 3) | | * |
student interns as well as work experience students during a period of exempt
student employment | Note
1: According to the Employment Ordinance, an employee engaged under a “continuous
contract” is defined as one who has been employed under a contract of employment
by the same employer for four weeks or more and has worked for 18 hours or more
each week (i.e. the so-called “4-18” requirement).
Note 2:
These include: (a) a family member who lives in the same dwelling as the employer;
(b) an employee as defined in the Contracts of Employment Outside Hong Kong Ordinance;
(c) a person serving under a crew agreement under the Merchant Shipping (Seafarers)
Ordinance, or on board a ship which is not registered in Hong Kong; (d) an apprentice
whose contract of apprenticeship has been registered under the Apprenticeship
Ordinance. As for (d), while certain provisions of the Employment Ordinance
apply to registered apprentices, SMW is not applicable.
Note 3: This
refers to domestic workers (including domestic helpers, carers, chauffeurs, gardeners,
boat-boys or other personal helpers) who dwell free of charge in their employing
household, irrespective of their sex or race. |
| A2 : | SMW
does not apply to student interns as well as work experience students during a
period of exempt student employment. Details are as follows: Student
interns A
student intern is:
* a student undergoing a period of
work arranged or endorsed by a local education institution specified in Schedule
1 to the Minimum Wage Ordinance, and the work is a compulsory or elective component
of the requirements of a full-time accredited programme being provided by the
institution to the student; or
* a student resident in Hong Kong and undergoing
a period of work arranged or endorsed by an institution, and the work is a compulsory
or elective component of the requirements of a full-time education programme for
a non-local academic qualification at degree or higher level being provided by
the institution to the student. Work
experience students during a period of exempt student employment A
work experience student is:
* a student who is enrolled
in a full-time accredited programme provided by a local education institution
specified in Schedule 1 to the Minimum Wage Ordinance; or
* a student who
is resident in Hong Kong and enrolled in a full-time education programme for a
non-local academic qualification at degree or higher level
and is under
the age of 26 years at the beginning of employment. The work experience
student may agree with the employer to have a continuous period of up to 59 days
(Note) as exempt student employment if :
(a) the student has
not commenced another exempt student employment period within the same calendar
year (Note) (whether under the employment of the same employer or not);
and
(b) the student has made a statutory declaration verifying the fact in
(a) above and provided the declaration (or copy) to the employer. The
Labour Department has published a booklet on Statutory
Minimum Wage: Notes for Student Employees and Employers on the details
of the exemption. Note:
This does not include any employment period before the commencement date of SMW
(i.e. 1 May 2011). |
| A3
: | SMW
also applies to employees with disabilities. In order to strike a balance
between providing wage protection to persons with disabilities and safeguarding
their employment opportunities, special arrangement is provided under the Minimum
Wage Ordinance so that persons with disabilities have the right to choose to undergo
a productivity assessment to determine whether they should be remunerated at not
lower than the SMW level or at a rate commensurate with their productivity.
To avoid abuse, the right to invoke such an assessment is vested in the employees
with disabilities rather than the employers. The
Labour Department has published a leaflet on Productivity
Assessment for Persons with Disabilities under the Statutory Minimum Wage Regime
to explain the details of this special arrangement. |