data collection (data | graphs | tables) project index quality assessment
English or languish - Probing the ramifications
of Hong Kong's language policy

Quality Assessment
Section five

Hong Kong's Bottom Line
The Opportunity Cost of English Language Study in Hong Kong

Table 44 - Entry Level Incentives for Learning English in 2004.  Secondary Form V graduates and above.
graph 78 | table 43 | table 45 | table 46 | tables 47a, 47b, and 47c | table 48 | table 49 | table 50 | table 51, tables 52a, 52b, and 52c | data collection (tables) | primary sources of waste (opportunity cost to children)


Hourly rate1
(HK dollars)

Level of
proficiency required by employer2
 Language
 Average
 Standard
Deviation
 Number
of Job Offers3		 Percent fraction of all offers by language required.
(Total = 40)


(1)
 (2)
 (3)
 (4)
No requirement
 Putonghua 29.9
 3.8
 14
 0.35

English
 29.7
 3.2
 7
 0.18

Neither
 29.7
 3.2
 7
 0.18






Some proficiency
 Putonghua
 28.0
 3.3
 11
 0.28

English
 28.2
 3.9
 11
 0.28

Both
 27.6
 3.9
 6
 0.15






Fluency
 Putonghua
 30.4
 3.4
 15
 0.38

English
 30.3
 3.5
 22
 0.55

Both
 30.6
 3.4
 14
 0.35






6Entire market
 29.6


Note 1: As some pay scales were provided as monthly rates and others as hourly rates, it was necessary to calculate a common unit of pay. Hourly rates were chosen. When pay scales were provided as a range, the minimum and maximum values were averaged and treated as a single pay rate.
Hourly rates = ME / (26.1 • AH)

where ME = average monthly earnings offered by employer,
where 26.1 = number of work days required per month including all holidays except for sundays (base year equal 365 days), and
where AH = average number of hours of work per day required by employer including part-time or full-time work on saturdays. (table)
Note 2: In each announcement employers were permitted to indicate whether there was a language requirement. This indication appeared in either of three formats: one, no mention of a language requirement; two, mention of the required language with the word little; and three,  mention of the required language with the word fluent. (table)
Note 3: Summing across the number of job offers associated with each language yields 40. Of these 40 only three were for secondary form VII graduates, one was for a post secondary graduate with vocational training, and one was for a university graduate. The remaining 35 were for secondary form V graduates. (table)
Note 4: A t-statistic was calculated for the difference in mean pay rates for jobs requiring English language fluency and those with no English language requirement. The value found was t = 0.4 with 27 degrees of freedom. Thus, we may conclude that no difference between the pay rates of the two groups exits. In summary, the amount of English an entry-level job candidate knows can determine which job he or she obtains, but it has no effect on his or her remuneration once the job is accepted. (table | if only there were a market (the child) | primary sources of waste (opportunity cost to children)
Note 5: Obviously one cannot determine from this point sample what is occurring in the economy as a whole. Nevertheless, it does confirm at least in part what EARTH has held right along (new window): government funded English language training is treated as a free good by Hong Kong employers. Also see Hong Kong's Window Dressers (pdf document - 40 KB) (table)
Note 6: The average for the entire market can be obtained as follows:
  1. Multiply the values found in columns (1) and (3) for each row.
  2. Sum the resulting product across all rows.
  3. Sum across all rows the values found in column (3).
  4. Divide the sum obtained in step 3 into the sum obtained in step 2.
table | if only there were a market (the child)
Source: The Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Interactive Employment Service of the Labour Department. [online search engine] Search jobs/Easy Search/Keyword Search/Elementary (17 April 2004) (table)

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