Hong Kong families are getting smaller as divorce rates soar. Work and career are tearing apart the traditional household. Li Likui looks at the phenomenon's impact on the economy and the work place.

There's no doubt about it, the conventional family model in Hong Kong is in decline. In 1971 the average Hong Kong household was 4.5. The 2011 Census showed the numbers had dropped to an average of 2.9. We see a clearer picture of those statistics emerge as we note that in the same 2011 Census were recorded 81,750 single parent families (64,040 single mothers, 17,665 single fathers). That 30-percent increase in single-parent families over 10 years reflect a 46-percent increase in the city's divorce rate over the previous decade. The Census revealed an annual increase of 2.8 percent in the number of single parents over the past decade. If that situation persists, there would be another 5,000 single parents in just over two years.

It's easy to see from the figures how the traditional family along with conceptions of filial piety and family values are taking a battering, despite the vital role the family is seen to play in Hong Kong society. Jessie Yu Sau-chu, chief executive of Hong Kong Single Parents Association, charges that in Hong Kong, single-parents families are not considered in the planning of family policies, a condition which she observes seems particularly out of step with the times. The trend toward single-parent families is increasing.

Something needs to be done, with 103,937 of Hong Kong's roughly 1 million kids living in single-parent households.

Jessie Yu calls on local authorities to emulate Macao's policy of promoting the image of single parents in society. Every year, Macao government holds an event to reward courageous single mothers who have achieved success and invites them as guest speakers to share their experience.

In the meantime, she argues, government in the future could provide single parents higher tax allowance, which means they can be exempted from paying the tax if their annual salary is under the limit of HK$240,000. Currently, tax allowance for single parents is identical to what married people receive. Yu says that's unfair.

"Not all single parents are impoverished. Some are working professionals. Therefore, if the single parents wanted to keep working, they will need to hire domestic helpers to take care of the children or the seniors in the family. In these cases, such fees on the domestic helpers should be claimed as the tax allowance," said Yu.

Hard choices for mums

Forty-four-year-old Chan Shu-juan sits across the table, answering questions in somewhat fractured Cantonese. She's just finished work as part-time cleaner in a shop. Her part-time job pays her hundreds or sometimes a thousand monthly.

Chan was married to a Hong Kong man in 2005. The next year her son was born. Tragedy followed close behind several months later when her husband died of cancer. Chan, from Chaozhou, a coastal city in Guangdong, was overwhelmed by the blow. She wasn't even allowed to find a work because she was still classified as a visitor.

She doesn't get the HK$3,500 Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA). She won't be able to get that at least until 2017 when she becomes eligible for permanent residence. She's the mother of a 7-year-old boy, so she can only work three hours a day.

Chan and her son were reduced to living on the CSSA payment paid in the name of the infant. She was granted a three-month two-way permit. She didn't get her Hong Kong Identity Card until 2010, and then began the seven-year count down before she truly could call Hong Kong home.

Work-life imbalance

Ultimately it's children who are at greatest risk in the decline of the traditional family. One of the most critical areas that society needs to address is the issue of work, also one of the most harmful influences on the family.

Statistics show these children of single-parent families much more likely to be in poverty, since women by far outnumber men as heads of single-parent families. Men earn 19.3 percent more than women on average. And while only 7.3 percent of working men earn below HK$6,000 a month, the percentage of women who get less than HK$6,000 is nearly double that at 13.7 percent - more than one working women in eight.

In Hong Kong, the average employee works 48.7 hours per week, according to a 2010 survey by Community Business, a non-government organization. Those are working hours well above the 40 hours a week considered healthy by the International Labor Organization. The situation is worse for the single parents. The government statistics show that the single parents whose weekly working hours exceeds 60 hours increased by 83% from 4,200 in 1996 to 7,700 in 2005. Those are the latest figures available. It's hardly surprising, given the numbers that 37 percent of those who took part in that Community Business survey said they did not have time to spend with their families.

Professor Yip Siu-fai from the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at the University of Hong Kong believes, with the situation not optimistic for children from single-parent family, the society will and should tend to have more pro-family policies, especially at work place, that maybe working parents can get a day off as parents' day so that they can take part in their children's school activities like in some western countries.

Both men and women hold jobs today. Even when couples remain together, most families need the dual income.

The 2011 census shows 47,717 working single parents in Hong Kong, an increase of 36.1 percent over the previous decade. Among them, working single mothers have increased by 41.5 percent from 24,948 to 35,310, while working single fathers increased by 22.6 percent from 10,124 to 12,407.

Statistics also show that the single parents whose weekly working hours exceed 60 increased by 83% from 4,200 in 1996 to 7,700 in 2005. It's hardly surprising, given the numbers, that 37 percent of those who took part in that Community Business survey said they did not have time to spend with their families.

Small wonder too that the crude birth rate in Hong Kong dropped from 34.3 per 1,000 population in 1961 to 7.1 per 1,000 population in 2003, climbing back up to 13.5 per 1,000 population in 2011, according to the Hong Kong Department of Health.

That, declares Lau Yuk-king, a consultant with the Department of Social Science at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is why Hong Kong needs standard working hours, and even more important, maximum working hours, to take regard for the needs of not only single-parent households, but all households in Hong Kong.

Professor Yip Siu-fai from the Department of Social Work and Social Administration at the University of Hong Kong is not optimistic about the future for children from single-parent families.

"The growth in the divorce rate.continues to grow. When children from single-parent families are not as successful as those from healthy families, it will be unrealistic for their parents to expect the next generation to take care of them when they are old. Then, there will be even greater pressure on society to take care of old people," said Yip.

Society must foster more pro-family policies, especially at work place - perhaps creating "parent's day" to allow parents to take part in their kids' school activities. .

The change in workplace may also involve flexible scheduling, such as a longer maternity leave or even giving a new mother the option to work only half days to maintain a healthy work-family balance, foresees Yip.

"I was offered a second job as a cleaner at a guesthouse in Tsim Sha Tsui, but I am having second thoughts. If I go, I am risking the CSSA and the time with my son, not to mention the travel expense I need," said Chan Shu-juan.

Chan and thousands of other single parents like her face the same troubling choices. They need to work, but then they are no longer able to care for their kids in the same way. In the end it is the kids who are the victims in this ever-changing career-driven world and it's the kids who matter most.

"I want my son to go to college, a dream I didn't accomplish," said Chan. Suddenly, she fell silent, as if there was something she wanted to say but couldn't work up the courage. "Can you be my son's English tutor?" she asked.

(China Daily 04/05/2013 page1)