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Survey Findings by Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at CUHK onPublic Attitudes towards the Extension of the Statutory Paid Maternity Leave from 10 to 14 Weeks
It is proposed that the statutory paid maternity leave for employed females be increased from 10 to 14 weeks. To gauge public opinion on this issue, a telephone survey was conducted from 19 to 26 September 2018 by the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). The number of successfully interviewed respondents aged 18 or above was 719, with a response rate of 37.9%. The sampling error is estimated at plus or minus 3.65 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.
Major findings are summarized as follows:
The majority of the respondents (87.5%) supported the proposal to increase paid maternity leave to 14 weeks, 8.3% responded negatively and 4.2% did not know or felt it was hard to tell. At the same time, 58.1% of the respondents agreed that increased wage expenses to employers should be partially defrayed by the government, 35.2% opposed the government subsidising employers and 6.7% did not know or felt it was hard to tell.
Over half (54.4%) of the respondents thought the 4-week increase to the entitlement was acceptable, but 28.5% thought the increase was inadequate. Only 7.0% thought it was excessive, and 6.7% did not know or felt it was hard to tell.
The increase in entitled leave was alleged by some employers to increase the cost of operation and affect doing business in Hong Kong. However, 63.6% of the respondents disagreed, 28.3% agreed and 8.1% did not know or felt it was hard to tell. In contrast, 76.8% of the respondents agreed that the increase may increase employees’ devotion and sense of belonging to the workplace, 14.6% disagreed and 8.6% did not know or felt it was hard to tell.
An increase to the provision is supposed to raise the declining fertility rate in Hong Kong. This possibility was dismissed by 61.3% of the respondents, 31.0% agreed and 7.7% did not know or felt it was hard to tell. That the increase may possibly reduce the chance of married women without children being hired was disagreed with by 51.6% of the respondents, 36.6% agreed and 11.8% did not know or felt it was hard to tell.
