Ordinary Gweilo

Phil has found an article about domestic helpers attending computer courses at the YMCA in Tsim Tsa Tsui.

A few things strike me as odd about this piece:

The idea that maids could earn more money in Hong Kong by virtue of their computer skills. There is a so-called minimum wage for domestic helpers, and that is how much most of them are paid – if they are employed legally (some, usually Indonesian, are illegal and paid significantly less). I very much doubt that more than a handful of employer would pay extra for computer skills!

Across the border, in Shenzhen, computer-literate maids can earn US$225 a month

Really? For one thing that is significantly less than the minimum wage for helpers in Hong Kong, and for another I don’t think it’s that easy to get an employment visa to work as a "computer-literate maid" in the PRC!

What would make sense would be that the domestic helpers hope to start a new career once their contract ends, but that wouldn’t make such a good story, would it?

Conrad (Gweilo Diaries) is probably the leading authority on domestic helpers in Hong Kong.