This week the Federation of Macau Workers’ Associations (FAOM) and the Macau Economic Association published the results of a study into the city’s labour environment. The ‘Survey of the Employment Situation in Various Industries 2023’ involved 3,115 workers, with responses given throughout the year.
According to the study, 75 per cent of respondents have not received a pay rise since the pandemic, with 20 per cent indicating that they have seen their wages reduced. Only 7.6 per cent of respondents received raises.
Among those who have seen their salaries cut, males have seen reductions of 21.7 per cent and females 18.4 per cent. The sectors most affected were transport, manufacturing, property management, MICE, and wholesale and retail trade.
“The more educated the respondents, the lower the percentage of their salary cuts,” the study concluded. It also highlights that respondents between the ages of 46 and 66 were particularly concerned about the difficulty of re-entering the labour market, as they typically receive higher salaries.
Only property didn’t grow
According to data from the Directorate of Statistics and Census Services (DSEC), the median monthly income between the third quarter of 2019 and 2023 increased by 1,000 patacas (MOP), from 17,000 to 18,000 MOP. It should be noted that the employed population fell from 387,100 to 369,300 in those four years.
The ‘lotteries and other betting games’ sector, which employs the largest number of people in the private sector, reported a median increase of 500 MOP, rising to 20,500 MOP.
Meanwhile, the wholesale and retail trade sectors, as well as hotels, restaurants and similar, which after gambling employ most of the population, saw their median salaries rise by 12 per cent, to 14,800 MOP, and 9.6 per cent, to 12,500 MOP, respectively.
The health and social work sector saw a positive change of 2,000 MOP, and now stands at 24,000 MOP.
Of the city’s main employing industries, only real estate and business services saw a drop in the median salary between 2019 and 2023 – a fall of 500 patacas, bringing the median to 10,600 MOP among its 35,200 workers.
Public administration with the highest salary volume
The truth is that none of the sectors can compare to the rise shown by the Public Administration. The median salary increased from 45,000 to 51,000 MOP between 2019 and 2023, by far the biggest change in Macau.
As PLATAFORMA reported last week, personnel costs accounted for 26 per cent of Macau’s public spending in 2022, the largest share of the public budget.
The only private sector that comes close to civil service figures is education, with a median salary of 27,000 patacas – unchanged since 2019.
