Can he live on a salary of HK$15,000 ? This was the question Daniel had to find out when he came to Hong Kong to work. His friend who was already in Hong Kong had convinced him to come to Hong Kong and work for him. Daniel is from Budapest, Hungary. When I met him, he was 33 years old and single. He said he and his girlfriend had just broken up. He is tall, maybe 6 ft 5.
We were sort of neighbors. We lived in the same building. The room he rented was two floors above my floor.
Daniel had just arrived in Hong Kong when I encountered him at the foyer downstairs. I quickly mentioned to him that I was in Budapest recently. He asked me how long I stayed. He knew that tourists from Asia usually stay for a few hours (If you're staying in a hotel in Vienna, you can join a tour group complete with bus driver and tour guide to go to Budapest or Salzburg or Prague. You'll be fetched from your hotel in the early morning and returned to your hotel in late afternoon of the same day. And it'll cost you only a hundred euros.) I told him I was there for six days. That was my first encounter with him.
One balmy night, I bumped into him downstairs. He had with him 2 cans of beer and was smoking. We started chatting.
After drinking some more beer, Daniel suddenly says, "Let me tell you my story."
He starts telling me that he has a friend who is considered a genius in Budapest. His friend had opened a startup business in Hong Kong. This startup business offered to clients in Europe a service. This service was to source products in China. Whenever they receive a request to source a certain product in China, his friend's company would help find which factory in China makes the product or which factory can make the product.
Most of these clients in Europe happen to be German speaking ones. Daniel's friend needed someone who can speak German. "I am special. I can speak German", Daniel said. Daniel's friend knew this and so he convinced Daniel to come to Hong Kong and work for him.
"Does your boss speak German?" I asked.
"Yes."
"Then, why can't he just talk to those clients himself?"
"Because he has a job in another company which pays him a big salary. He is never at the office where I work
except perhaps on weekends.
My boss and his wife work like crazy. They want to be rich when they go back to Budapest in a few years."
Daniel said his salary was only HK$15,000.00 (around €1650) and that was all. Daniel will have to pay for his own rent and all other necessities. He says, "I didn't know that food is so expensive in Hong Kong! It's about 4 times more expensive than in Budapest. In Budapest, I am so used to doing whatever I want to do. I can go see a movie or go to a pub for some beers whenever I want to. But here in Hong Kong, my dinner is mostly at McDonald's!"
I asked Daniel how his work was and he replies, " All I know is I have never worked this hard before!"
I didn't get a chance to chat with Daniel until more than two months later. We sat down to chat. He told me he was leaving. His salary of HK$15,000.00 is definitely not enough for him to live on in Hong Kong.
I asked Daniel if he had tried to ask his boss to increase his salary. He said, "Yes, and he refused. And I was asking for only HK$2,000.00 more! So, I am leaving."
"What if there was another company willing to give you a monthly salary of HK$24,000.00 because you can speak German?" I asked Daniel. "Then I will come back to Hong Kong," Daniel said grinning broadly.
