HKIEd Study: Availability and Utilisation of Family Friendly Policies in Hong Kong
26 January 2015
The steering Committee on Population Policy released a consultation document on population policy, entitled "Thoughts for Hong Kong" in 2013. The document points out that to deal with the ageing population, Hong Kong needs to increase its labour force in order to maintain its competitiveness. One of the solutions proposed by the Committee is to encourage more home-makers to join the labour market. To meet the family needs of working couples, the document suggests encouraging more businesses to adopt family-friendly workplace practices. Dr. Lina Vyas, Assistant Professor with the Department of Asian and Policy Studies at The Hong Kong Institute of Education (HKIEd) interviewed 1,005 employees aged 25 and above at their homes between July and October 2014. Almost 49 percent of those interviewed said they enjoyed a five-day work week and it is the most common family-friendly workplace practice. However, only 30 percent or less of the employees said they also enjoy the other types of family-friendly workplace practices available. Among these practices, the prevalence of individual measure varies considerably. For more information, please see attached for details. 