Hong Kong is an equal opportunity work environment that encourages employers to fairly recruit based on skill, experience, and ability to perform the job. The Labour Department actively assists employers in avoiding discrimination by gender, age, race, religion, marital status or disability.
The legal age to work in Hong Kong is 18 years, although in some cases young persons aged from 13-17 are able to work. Please note that there are restrictions to the type of position and number of hours a week that a young person can work. At the moment, there is no mandatory retirement age in Hong Kong but the average person retires around 60-65 years of age.
Students too are capable of working under certain circumstances. Students who are Hong Kong citizens or Permanent Residents are capable of being hired on a full time or part time basis without restrictions. Students are entitled to MPF contributions, while interns typically are only paid a monthly salary.
International students of a full-time, locally accredited university or degree level program whose study period is not less than one academic year can be hired as interns under certain conditions. The internships must be related to the topic of study and arranged or endorsed by the educational host institution. Furthermore, the internship cannot exceed one academic year, or one third of the normal duration of the full time academic program, whichever is shorter.
Students, international or otherwise, are able to take up to 20 hours per week of on-campus employment and employment during the summer holiday months.