No. An employer cannot agree with the helper to pay lesser amount of wages than the MAW. Approval for the importation of foreign domestic helper is based on facts submitted to the Director of Immigration, whereby the employer has agreed to pay not less than the MAW. An employer who wilfully and without reasonable excuse underpays wages as stated in the standard employment contract is liable to prosecution and, upon conviction, to a maximum fine of
HK$350,000 and to imprisonment for 3 years. The employer would also be committing serious offences of making false representation to an Immigration Officer and conspiracy to defraud. Any person convicted of making false representation is liable to prosecution and, upon conviction, to a maximum fine of HK$150,000 and to imprisonment for 14 years.
You are advised to pay wages by cheque or by autopayment into your helper’s bank account. To do this, you have to obtain your helper’s consent beforehand.
If your helper does not prefer such methods of payment, you should pay him/her wages in legal tender.
You are required to keep records of wage payments, e.g. relevant bank statements. You should also provide a receipt for payment of wages and food allowance and ask your helper to acknowledge receipt of the amount.
You should pay wages to your helper not less than once every month. Wages shall become due on the expiry of the last day of the wage period. You should pay wages to your helper as soon as practicable but in any case not later than 7 days after the end of the wage period.
If you wish to change the wage period and wage payment date, you should give prior notice to your helper and clear the outstanding wages.
For example, your helper commenced employment on 1st of March. If you intend to change the wage period as starting from the 16th of each month, you should clear the balance of the 15 days’ wages (i.e. from 1st to 15th) within 7 days after the 15th of March before you pay him/her on the new payment date in April.
Sunlight Employment Agency hopes that the above information can help employers to understand more about the payroll, so as not to violate the law by mistake.
