The Macau government has clarified that there is no predetermined position on its proposed implementation of revised minimum wages for all workers, including domestics.
After untrue information circulated on the Internet, the Labor Affairs Bureau posted a statement on its website on Wednesday that the government wanted to consider the opinions gathered during the public consultation period before the implementation of a revised minimum-wage law.
In the planned revision, the bureau has proposed exempting domestic workers and workers with disabilities from any statutory provisions, drawing on a comparative basis that considers cases in other jurisdictions such as mainland China and Hong Kong.
The public consultation ended on Wednesday and the report on its findings will be published in the new year, Exmoo News reported.
Meanwhile, the New Macau Association, a political party in the city, proposed that the minimum hourly wage be adjusted to 36 patacas (US$4.50) from 30 patacas currently and the monthly minimum to 7,500 patacas, from 6,240 now, Macau Daily News reported.
For domestic workers, the party suggested that the government exclude them from the overall minimum-wage plan but evaluate their current minimum-pay standard, adding that an evaluation mechanism should be established to ensure that domestics get a reasonable salary working in Macau.
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