OPINION – Beyond the numbers game in Macau | Macau Business

Macau Business | January 2024

Keith Morrison – Author and educationist

As we enter a new year with the signs for Macau’s economy continuing to recover, this should not occlude some long-standing challenges still facing Macau. None of these is new, which makes them more tenacious than might have been imagined in a vibrant city of lights, glitz, tourists, entertainment, fun, food, and casinos.

For example, income inequality in Macau is obstinately persistent, with significant wealth gaps. The table here indicates that, over the last ten years (latest annual data), whilst the nature of employment has changed slightly, with some upskilling observed and low skill employment reducing, there are still nearly 18,900 low-skilled and low-paid workers (7 per cent of the employed residents). Relative percentage increases in income for different groups of employees do not mask the point that, despite the 37 per cent income rise for thousands of unskilled worked, they are still living at a pitifully low, subsistence level, and despite a 40 per cent income rise for service and sales employees, thousands are still unable to afford a decent quality of life.

Aside from the table data, in 2022 (latest annual figures), some 15,100 of Macau’s employed residents earned 60,000 or more patacas a month (with 6,300 people earning over 80,000 patacas each month), the median income for over one quarter (27.8 per cent) of Macau’s employed residents was only 15,000 patacas or less each month. Rents, mortgages, cost of living, childcare, eating, and clothing continue to render it inconceivable for most young couples to even contemplate purchasing their own home. Little wonder that the birth rate has fallen by 44 per cent from 2013 to 2023. Living in Macau is not cheap. Where and what is the quality of life for the tens of thousands of residents on low incomes, whilst the wealthy few enjoy an entirely different lifestyle? Where are the equal opportunities in Macau for all its residents to afford an acceptable quality of life, affordable housing, healthcare, and a pension that keeps them out of poverty or reliance on others?

Talking of pensioners and those relying on others for help, it is not only the young adults in Macau who suffer. In the last ten years Macau has seen a 46 per cent rise in its residents aged 65 and more, with numbers rising from 48,700 in 2013 to 89,400 in 2022 (latest annual figures). The elderly dependency ratio in Macau (the percentage of those aged 65 or over who are supported by every 100 adults aged 15-64), rose from 9.9 per cent in 2013 to 18.3 per cent in 2022. A study in early 2023 reported that, in 2021, there were 17 dependent elderly people for every 100 working adults in Macau, and that by 2026 this was estimated to rise to 24 dependent elderly people for every 100 working adults. Where are Macau’s adequate support services to help them and to spare children from supporting grandparents and parents as heavily as is happening?

As we enter a new year, it is urgent that Macau places human values before money, economy, markets, and wealth generation for a few. This requires a rethinking of values, putting concerns and care for people first, not money, personal wealth, status, power, and acquisitive appetitiveness. Macau’s developments and governance must care more for its residents and their quality of life. These cannot simply be bought. They require a rethinking of who benefits from developments in Macau, at whose cost, who is left behind, for what and for whom is Macau’s development, and how to put humanity first. A significant proportion of Macau’s residents are suffering from unequal life chances, low income, rising prices, insufficient opportunity for upward mobility, and poverty. Even if it were only one 1 per cent in this situation, that is thousands of people; 1 per cent is too many. What is your new year’s resolution to address this? What are the wealthy and powerful in Macau doing to be really resolute in addressing this, not just saying it?

Employed residents in Macau: 2013 and 2023