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Following is the transcript of remarks by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Matthew Cheung Kin-chung, at a media session after a public function today (May 28):
Reporter: Can you say something about the end of the minimum wage public consultation (by the Minimum Wage Commission) ?
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: The public consultation exercise, in fact, will end today. The eight-week consultation is designed to canvass the views of the community on the optimum rate of the statutory minimum wage. The next step for the Commission is to analyse the views and also to have another round of discussion with all the stakeholders before they actually sit down and analyse the data and the views collected. They will also take account of the findings of a consultancy study on the ripple effect of the statutory minimum wage, particularly on the catering industry and retail industry. All these will be factor into their consideration, and then submit the recommendation on the new rate to the Government before the end of October. This is the timetable.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Monday, May 28, 2012
Issued at HKT 19:49
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