High insurance premium: The hurdle of elderly employment 2019-03-12To encourage the elderly to re-enter the job market, it requires efforts of the entire society to eliminate age discrimination and create a favourable environment for elderly employment. However, the difficulties in purchasing employees’ compensation insurance for old-aged employees may hinder employers from hiring the elderly, even if they would like to do so.
The #valuable campaign sparks a revolution of inclusion in workplace 2019-01-25A worldwide campaign named #valuable has been pushing hard for the business sector to recognise the value of disabled population and offer them more job opportunities in recent years. Can Hong Kong join the campaign as well to unleash talents among disabled people?
Rethinking the needs of slashies II: Being your own boss still needs labour protection? 2019-01-11In the era of slashies, freelancers can enjoy ‘being their own boss’ at the cost of losing income stability and traditional labour protection. The article looks into how the latest moves of different governments and crowd work platforms can shed light on the ‘labour’ protection for freelancers.
How to figure out how much money you need to retire? 2018-12-27In recent years, some professional economists use ‘Replacement Rate’ as one of the indicators when they talked about retirement protection. What is this indicator? What implications does it have for Hong Kong employees’ retirement plans?
Opening doors to employment for ethnic minority women 2018-11-05In Hong Kong, for certain ethnic groups, the proportion of working women is low. Although some of them wish to work, their culture may expect them to stay indoors and look after children. In the Policy Address, the Government has announced plans to provide extra training and incentive payments to home-based child carers. Can it open up employment opportunities for such ethnic minority women?
Dual-career families: Enhancing children’s self-care abilities 2018-09-10For many working parents, finding someone to look after their children is not easy. Some parents may seek help from domestic helpers or switch from full-time employment to part-time. While there are parents who encourage independence by urging their children to learn self-care skills, hoping to lighten the burden of child care in the long term.
Keeping track of homeschooling to protect children 2018-08-31In recent years, many parents around the world have chosen to homeschool their children, attempting to avoid formal curricula. At the same time, however, how to ensure the quality of education and the safety of children under homeschooling have become a challenge to many governments.
Boosting birth rate in Hong Kong by enhancing child care services 2018-08-23A Consultancy Study on the Long-term Development of Child Care Services is expected to be released at the end of September. To facilitate future discussion on providing better child care options and support, perhaps we can start with reassessing existing child care services.
CEO-employee pay gap disclosure: What changes will it bring to corporations? 2018-08-11Starting from early this year, listed companies in the United States are required to release pay ratio figures – a ratio that compares the compensation of the Chief Executive Officer to that of the median employee. To what extent can this figure inform shareholders of a company’s compensation practices? How should companies address the concerns from different stakeholders about the figures?
Role of local waste pickers in a new recycling landscape 2018-08-06Waste pickers help protect the environment by sorting garbage for recycling. However, the upcoming green measures undertaken by the Hong Kong Government may affect the livelihood of waste pickers, as the amount of recyclables in rubbish bins is expected to be reduced. What can we learn from overseas experience to make local waste pickers well-adapted to the new landscape?