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Anything between 40 and 48 hours is considered to be standard working hours in Hong Kong. It is not unusual for employees in some lower-skilled industries to work up to 60 hours.
The average working week, according to research in 2019, is 42 hours.
The only legislation around working hours is for children (aged 13 to 15) and young people (aged 15 to 18). Young people may not work over eight hours a day, or 48 hours a week, in industrial work.
Standard working days for most industries in Hong Kong are Monday to Friday, but many companies also work Saturdays. It is rare for businesses to operate on Sundays.
The Hong Kong Employment Ordinance (Cap. 57), or EO, provides some basic rules regarding rest days and specifying work hours in an employment contract for employees working under continuous contracts (i.e., employees who work at least 18 hours a week for a period of four weeks), but otherwise there are very limited work-hours laws in Hong Kong.
In Hong Kong, employees working under continuous contracts are entitled to one rest day of at least 24 hours every seven days. It is an offense for an employer to fail to provide rest days or to force an employee to work on a rest day, with a maximum penalty of HK$50,000, or about US$6,374, for either offense. There is no legislation on daily rest or meal breaks; however, the government has published a nonbinding guide on this, and it is common practice for employees to be permitted a one-hour lunch break in most industries. Doing so helps fulfil employers’ obligation under the Occupational Safety and Health Ordinance to ensure the safety and health of employees at work.
In Hong Kong, part time work is defined as working fewer than 18 hours per week.
There is no statutory regulation of overtime in Hong Kong. Overtime is agreed between the employee and employer.
It is not illegal to work on the weekend in Hong Kong, although many employers have a day of rest on a Sunday.
There is no legislation in Hong Kong mandating a 4 day work week.
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There is no maximum amount of overtime annually in Hong Kong.
There is no statutory provision for overtime in the EO, but overtime rates can (and should) be agreed in the employment contract.
