Levy on Foreign Helpers Imposed

Date: October 1, 2003 • Location: Rome, Italy

A levy was imposed on the hiring of foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong, who numbered in the hundreds of thousands at the time.

Foreign domestic helpers in Hong Kong are domestic workers employed by Hongkongers, typically families. They comprise five percent of Hong Kong's population, and about 98.5% of them are women. In 2019, there were 400,000 foreign domestic helpers in the territory. Required by law to live in their employer's residence, they perform household tasks such as cooking, serving, cleaning, dishwashing and child care.