Hong Kong Seeks to Hire More Filipino Caregivers with $5,000 Salary

Filipinos are well-known for delivering efficient services around the world which make them highly competitive.  That is why Filipinos are one of the most-sought nationalities to work abroad.  This gives the opportunity to more Filipinos who are willing to work in a foreign land in their pursuit to have a financially stable career.

In Hong Kong, families with elders in the house agree to give higher salaries to caregivers provided that they are nursing graduates.  With the increase in the number of sick and elderly people that needs to be taken care of, more Filipinos will then be given a promising opportunity and career ahead of them provided they are nursing graduates.

In fact, based on researchers, one-third of Hong Kong’s population would be over the age of 60 by the year 2034, considering the fact that they had the longest life expectancy in the world with women having an age of 87 and 81 for men.

According to Kitman Cheung, the CEO of Overseas Employment Centre in Hong Kong and Macau in an interview with Hong Kong News, they were seeking for Filipino nurses and that they were willing to give them a salary of $5,000 as caregivers.

Apparently, nine months ago, there were about 20 nurses that they had already deployed to families in Hong Kong but then they had to freeze deployment since most had just finished short-term caregiving courses and recruiters are failing to supply them with nursing graduates thus, they could not offer the $5,000 salary.

“They promised us nursing graduates, but in fact, no, they give us caregivers only or those who have six-month training. We can employ between 20 and 30 nursing graduates to become caregivers, but not right now. The provider only gives us one nursing graduate or two.

Meanwhile, Consul General Bernardita Catalla and Labor Attache Jalilo Dela Torre viewed this scenario as a positive development which will give better opportunities to Filipinos in earning more and for which the Philippine government should be preparing for.

“This is good for Filipinos because this requires specialized skills and Filipinos are known to be very good carers because we have tender loving care. Our nurses overseas are known for that. Filipino nurses are preferred because of that,” Catalla claimed.

“The moment they announce it as official policy, we will pursue it because that’s good for the [Filipino] community. This means [Filipinos’] skills as caregivers will be officially recognized and therefore they will be compensated higher,” he added.

As this may be a good venue for Filipino nurses to earn much more than what they earn while working in the Philippines, Dela Torre expressed he was uncertain whether the nurses would be willing to work as caregivers in Hong Kong.

“We will pursue it because it’s a good market development, but I don’t know what the parameters are of this new policy and if they continue to have a domestic worker’s visa or if the Hong Kong government will have a new category for caregivers and that’s the ideal arrangement for the nursing graduates.”