features
offer. The disparity underscores Hong Kong’s unique - for lack
of a better word - combination of inexpensive domestic help,
strong work ethic and traditional attitudes about parenting. Oh,
and one other thing: a love of cash.
“It’s very hard, in a local company, to put a lot of benefits
in place for employees. The benefits are not valued, so they
don’t bother doing it,” said Graham Corner, Managing Director
for Black Mountain Group, a company that specialises in HR
administration and employee benefits. “Not to say that some
organisations don’t have paternity leave, but there’s no one
saying to us, ‘we must have this as part of our package’. Now
that probably comes from a Hong Kong benefits culture where
cash is king.”
Corner, whose company also has offices in Singapore and
the UK, explained that for the majority of Hong Kong workers,
salary always trumps benefits. This attitude stands in marked
contrast to Corner’s own experience as a Dad, working from
home most mornings when his two children were babies, as
well as to the work his company does in the UK, where well-
ness, leave and all the extras are well thought of.
“International companies will put benefits in place (in Hong
Kong) because they’ve got them internationally. Are they
valued? Will one company win out against another, because
they’ve got more leave or better insurance? I don’t think that
makes a lot of difference here. But they have to have the
benefits, if their peer group has it. However, there’s no one
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coming and saying: this has to be the way forward.”
Kathryn Weaver, who is a Partner and the Head of Lewis
Silkin’s employment practice for Asia, has a wealth of
experience with maternity and paternity leave and rights, for
employers in the region. And as a dual-qualified (England and
Wales and Hong Kong) lawyer, she has also seen firsthand
the two countries’ differing perspectives.
“Whilst I think that Hong Kong is moving in the right
direction with the planned extension of parental leave to five
days,” Weaver said, “the pace of change is slow and certainly
stress and the lack of work-life balance is a significant
problem in Hong Kong, which needs to be tackled.”
Who Pays for Paternity Leave
One important, but often-overlooked, obstacle to a change
in leave policy in Hong Kong is the fact that the government
does not reimburse companies for maternity or paternity
leave, as is the practice in many other countries. Weaver
explained that employers have to fund leave payments
themselves, and the payments are based on actual wages,
rather than on a prescribed rate, as in the UK. This could
make the cost significant for an employer. As Weaver said,
“Government financial support for paternity pay would
certainly assist employers, especially small to medium-sized
enterprises, in Hong Kong with providing this benefit. I expect
this is unlikely to happen any time soon though, given that