Minimum wage bill to be in effect on November 1

The minimum wage policy for all job types in Macau will come into effect November 1 if the government’s plans proceed as expected.
Yesterday, the First Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly signed the opinion report on the city’s Employees’ Minimum Wage Law.
The bill states that it will come into effect on November 1, 180 days after its publication.
This month, the AL plenary is set to vote on the final version of the bill. Once published, likely on May 1, the city will have six months to prepare until the law is officially implemented.
Every two years, the local government will review the law.
Some lawmakers asked if reviews could be more frequent, implying that the next increase in minimum wage would take more than two years once all necessary administrative and legal procedures were carried out.
As previously reported, the law still excludes domestic helpers and workers with disabilities. However, the wages of the latter are protected because the local government already has a plan to ensure minimum wage for workers with disabilities.
The local government is currently preparing to draft administrative regulations to ensure that disabled workers will receive minimum wage. The minimum wage for disabled workers will be the same as what was proposed in the Employees’ Minimum Wage Law.
As soon as the bill is published, the local government will publish the administrative regulations, which are planned to come into effect on the same day as the minimum wage policies for all job types in Macau.
According to Chan Chak Mo, chairman of the committee, the local government may subsidize disabled employees in order to secure minimum wage for these workers.
Chan also commented that 42.5% of the world’s domestic helpers are not entitled to minimum wages, citing statistics from the International Labour Organization.
The city’s labor authority thinks that the majority of domestic workers’ employers are households, and that these households can’t afford to pay the minimum wage for their helpers during this crisis.
The bill says the minimum wage for all workers should be raised from 30 patacas to 32 patacas per hour, except for domestic helpers and disabled workers.
Once the law comes into effect, the minimum wage will increase to 32 patacas per hour. This is 256 patacas per day, or 6,656 patacas per month.