Twenty-eight-year-old Hong Kong resident Fong and his wife want to have a child but he knows they cannot afford one for now.
He earns about HK$10,000 (US$1,275) a month as a construction worker and lives in a subdivided flat in Prince Edward, paying roughly HK$3,000 a month for the 100 sq ft space. His mainland Chinese wife, 27, remains in Guangdong province as she waits for a one-way permit to be in Hong Kong with him.
With unstable working hours and wages, Fong said he struggled to make ends meet. The cost of raising a child in one of the world’s most expensive cities is too heavy a burden to bear for now.
“If you bring a child into the world, you have to raise them. It’s not something to be taken lightly,” he said.
“It requires real commitment and a good environment for the child to grow up in.”
