Gap between rich and poor widens

HONG KONG: Lau can’t help but glance nervously at the calendar. Her next salary isn’t for a week, and she doesn’t have enough money to feed her family of four crammed into her small, government-subsidised Hong Kong apartment. Her husband can’t work, and the children don’t understand why their mother keeps buying stale food.

“We’ll eat rice soup for all three meals,” said the 42-year-old, a cashier at the Wellcome supermarket chain controlled by the Jardine Matheson group. Lau, who asked that only her surname be used, has been the sole provider for her seven-year-old daughter and 15-year-old son since her husband injured his back. She makes the equivalent of US$5.40 an hour, nowhere near the US$15-an-hour minimum wage in cities like Seattle, where the cost of living is lower.