On this day, 26 years ago, June 8, 1999 (April 25, 1999, the salary of Hong Kong civil servants was frozen for one year. Since the 1970s, when the British Hong Kong Governor MacLehose implemented the so-called "high salaries to support integrity" policy, civil servants have become the "iron rice bowl" in the eyes of Hong Kong people: not only are their incomes higher than those of the outside world, but they are also rarely affected by the economic downturn. Salaries increase year by year based on seniority. Society is very greedy for this. Many people are competing for public office vacancies while criticizing civil servants for being too generous. However, civil servants also have a "salary freeze"(suspension of salary increases) day, which is somewhat unexpected. On June 8, 1999, the Hong Kong government decided to freeze civil service salaries for one year. Hiring cleaners with a monthly salary of 9,000 yuan in the mid-1990s, Hong Kong's property market was booming, as if it would only rise and not fall. Many people enthusiastically speculated on real estate. At that time, an ordinary small and medium-sized house could easily be sold for two to three million Hong Kong dollars. However, not long after, the financial turmoil sweeping through Southeast Asia landed in Hong Kong. For a time, there was a wave of cancellations in the property market, new properties were cut for sale, and individual companies such as Yaohan Department Store, C. A. Pacific Securities and Peregrine Securities closed down one after another. Life in business is difficult, and the life of a migrant worker is self-evident. According to statistics, Hong Kong's unemployment rate quickly climbed from a low of 2.2% before the storm to a record high of 6.5% two years later. In other words, a full 140,000 more people are competing for a "rice bowl" in the labor market with the original 70,000 unemployed people. Employees who are lucky enough to retain their jobs are also affected. Before 1996, it was common for employees to raise their salaries by 10% every year, but now most companies have ordered employees to "freeze their salaries" and have become popular to change the "year-end double salary" to a "bonus" system determined based on performance. Just after various companies cut staff and reorganized their structures, the employees who stayed were extremely busy. The normal working hours were extended from nine to five to nine to six. Overtime work was even more leisurely, and overtime pay could not be expected. Countless migrant workers work more than 10 hours a day, and commercial buildings in Central are still brightly lit until night. To explain it in the words of Hong Kong people themselves, this is an era where "people find jobs" rather than "people find jobs", and employers do not have to worry about having no choice. Among them, the ones who have suffered the most are recent college graduates, many of whom have become "double lost youths"(unemployed youths). Even if they are lucky enough to obtain positions, they are no longer "favored ones" who earn more than 10,000 a month. Compared with their senior brothers and sisters, their entry salaries have been significantly cut by 20 to 30%. This situation became worse later. For the same talents, the salary could only be 50% to 30% off the salary of their senior brothers and sisters. Many people even "condescend" and compete for jobs with middle school students. However, just as everyone was struggling to support the deterioration of their living environment, the salaries of civil servants were not greatly affected. Compared with the market, the salaries of civil servants are inherently "superior", and when the government recruits new public servants according to the salary structure standards, it also uses the same higher salary to hire them. As a result, the University of Hong Kong, whose salary level is linked to civil servants, once planned to hire a cleaner for a monthly salary of more than 9000 yuan, which is more than the income of recent college graduates! After the news broke out, all parties were in an uproar. Civil servants 'wages account for more than 60% of fiscal expenditures. After the financial turmoil in Hong Kong, salaries in all walks of life were under pressure, but only civil servants were not affected. Hong Kong people regard him as the only "good and bad" at the moment. In their view, everyone in the "yamen" holds an "iron rice bowl" and does not have to be afraid of being suddenly fired by the boss. After retirement, they can still receive a monthly pension until they die of old age. In this regard, civil servants have also refuted that when the economy takes off, they have fewer opportunities for promotion than the outside world, and their salaries are not as good as private companies... No matter who is right or wrong, the remuneration of Hong Kong civil servants has triggered heated discussions in society. Financial Secretary Donald Tsang, who has always liked to shout "wolf is coming", also took the opportunity to take action. Before Hong Kong's economy reached its worst situation, he vigorously implemented the "Enhanced Resources Plan", which was to follow the example of private companies and increase the workload of subordinates, thereby saving billions of yuan in annual expenses. In March 1999, the Hong Kong government began to implement civil service reform. In the budget announced that year, Donald Tsang announced a temporary freeze on civil service salaries from 1999 to 2000. This behavior immediately aroused dissatisfaction among civil servants. In May, tens of thousands of civil servants marched in Hong Kong for several weeks to oppose the government's reform measures. They claim that, aside from whether the government's measures such as corporatization of departments are reasonable, its freezing of salaries and cutting benefits and allowances are obviously dishonest and chilling... Due to the Hong Kong government's fiscal deficit at this time, civil servant salaries and benefits account for more than 60% of the fiscal expenditure. Coupled with the dissatisfaction of ordinary people with the current "inequality between the rich and the poor", public resentment is everywhere in society. Therefore, although the civil service reform is highly controversial, it has to be implemented. On June 8, the Hong Kong government decided to freeze civil service salaries for one year. Seeing that things could not be changed, the four staff side representatives of the Civil Service Council generously accepted the government's arrangements to tide over the difficulties with the public. In fact, civil servants still had great hopes for the situation at this time. Principal Assistant Secretary for the Civil Service, Yan Ruihua, emphasized that "the current salary freeze is due to the economic downturn and is a very special situation. The government will review salaries in accordance with the established mechanism next year." Chen Changyi, chairman of the Hong Kong First Standard Pay Scale Consultative Committee, urged the government to consider retroactively compensating the 0.84% increase in the original salary of mid-level civil servants after the economy improves the following year. "Pay should be frozen for another year" When Hong Kong's economy is in recession, the world is looking forward to the bright future of the "new economy". Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa also staked his hopes on the popular technology industry and began to vigorously build a "Cyberport". However, just around the turn of the century, Li Ka-shing's Hutchison Group sold the British mobile phone network Orange for a high price of more than 100 billion yuan. After that, the nerves of Hong Kong people were stirred again: they forgot the painful experience of the real estate bubble not long ago and ignored the reality of local technology research and development. Everyone clamored to develop technology, set up a website, and took the opportunity to go public to make money. Unfortunately, in less than a month, the Internet craze in the United States was disillusioned, and Hong Kong once again fell into the abyss of economic depression. In just a few years, people have experienced two bursts of bubbles, and pessimism and despair have shrouded the city. To make matters worse, the government's fiscal deficit became more and more obvious at this time. In order to cut spending, the government has to slash the salary of "public servants" again. In May 2000, the Secretary for the Civil Service of Hong Kong, Lam Woon-kwong, announced that "after considering all relevant factors, we believe that civil service pay should be frozen for another year." Civil servants reacted fiercely to this. In fact, due to the poor economy, all "public servants" will inevitably have the fear of unemployment and pay cuts. They are afraid that the reform will break the "iron rice bowl" and it will be difficult for them to find jobs with similar wages. On July 9 of the same year, tens of thousands of civil servants set out from Chater Garden in Central District at 4 p.m., holding slogans and shouting slogans along the way, and marching to the government headquarters. After arriving at the Government Headquarters, they read out the petition letter and asked the Chief Secretary for Administration, Mrs Anson Chan, to respond to all civil servants in the form of one person, one letter to restore the confidence of civil servants. The protest was so powerful that Hong Kong Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa was quite "unable to get off". Amid the fierce protests, Tung Chee-hwa's civil service reform only knocked on the "iron rice bowl" a few times, but failed to carry out the "heavy work". Due to two economic bubbles, the Hong Kong government finally forced financial pressure and decided to implement the "Mandatory Provident Fund" scheme starting in 2000, reduce the starting salary of civil servants and reduce the civil service. However, the problem of high salary has not yet been completely solved.