§ Dr. Glynasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs whether he will publish a table to compare average wages in Hong Kong with those in other South-East Asian countries.
§ Mr. RifkindA comparative table is set out as follows, but any true comparison is extremely difficult because the method of calculating the wage rates is not the same for each country. It is not possible to standardise these with the information now available.
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Actual Monthly Wage Rates in US Dollars 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 Hong Kong 167.18 187.46 206.44 235.82 242.58 Indonesia 52.72 55.77 — — — Korea, Republic of 142.91 191.96 246.93 241.48 258.69 Philippines 53.45 64.51 70.50 — — Singapore 114.40 130.00 150.80 171.60 — Taiwan 145.89 172.48 210.22 255.39 —