The Legislative Assembly (AL) yesterday passed the outline of a government-initiated bill that proposes to raise Macau’s statutory minimum wage by one pataca an hour to 35 patacas per hour from the current 34 patacas, representing an increase of 2.94 percent.
The implementation of Macau’s overall minimum wage system started on November 1, 2020. Since then, all employees in the private sector, except domestic helpers and those with disabilities, had been covered by a statutory minimum wage of 32 patacas an hour – or 256 patacas a day, or 1,536 patacas a week, or 6,656 patacas a month, before the amount was raised to the current 34 patacas an hour – or 272 patacas a day, or 1,632 patacas a week, or 7,072 patacas a month – on January 1 last year, an increase of 6.25 percent.
Secretary for Economy and Finance Anton Tai Kin Ip introduced the outline of the bill, which proposes amendments to the city’s overall minimum wage law, during a plenary session of the legislature’s hemicycle yesterday.
After yesterday’s passage of its outline, the amendment bill will be passed to one of the legislature’s standing committees for an article-by-article review, after which it will be resubmitted to another plenary session for its second and final debate and article-by-article vote.
The amendment bill proposes to raise the statutory minimum wage to 35 patacas an hour – or 280 patacas a day, or 1,680 patacas a week, or 7,280 patacas a month – effective from January 1 next year.
The city’s overall minimum wage law requires the government to review the amount of the statutory minimum wage every two years.
The government completed its first review of the minimum wage amount in 2023, assessing the implementation between November 1, 2020 and October 31, 2022. Later that year, the government submitted a minimum wage amendment bill proposing to raise the amount to 34 patacas an hour to the Legislative Assembly, which passed the bill in its final reading in December 2023. The current minimum wage of 34 patacas an hour has been in force since January 1 last year.
During yesterday’s plenary session, Tai noted that the government completed its second review of the minimum wage amount earlier this year, which assessed the implementation between November 1, 2022 and October 31, 2024.
Tai said that the government was now proposing to raise the city’s statutory minimum wage to 35 patacas per hour, an increase of 2.94 percent, after consulting representatives from the labour and business sectors and considering the review’s findings as well as various factors such as improved protection of workers’ rights and benefits, and the potential impact of a minimum wage hike on the city’s business environment, employers’ operation costs, and consumers’ ability to adapt to price increases.
Tai also said that the proposed minimum wage increase was estimated to benefit 18,200 workers, most of them employed in the property management and cleaning service sectors.
The outline of the amendment bill was passed during yesterday’s plenary session after 29 lawmakers voted in favour, while three legislators abstained from voting, namely José Maria Pereira Coutinho and his group’s two fellow lawmakers George Chan Hao Weng and Che Sai Wang.
The legislature has 33 members. As is customarily, the hemicycle’s speaker did not vote.
Che lamented that minimum wage hikes in Macau have lagged behind those in Hong Kong, adding that the Macau government has failed to come up with a clear formula and criteria determining the amounts by which the minimum wage should be raised.
Tai replied that the government has proposed the one-pataca increase after considering Macau’s situation in terms of various aspects, adding that Macau is a microeconomy which is more susceptible to adverse impact from the external environment.
Secretary for Economy and Finance Anton Tai Kin Ip addresses yesterday’s plenary session in the Legislative Assembly’s (AL) hemicycle. – Photo: GCS
