1998 to 2012, failing to keep pace with Hong Kong's median monthly income (which rose over 15 percent during the same period). Since Hong Kong is a benchmark market for Asian migrant workers, there is pressure to keep wages low. Wages were also held in check by competition from Indonesian workers, who began arriving in large numbers during the 1990s. Since then, workers from other Asian countries (such as Bangladesh and Nepal) may be willing to work for less than the MAW. Employees' Retraining Levy During a recession in 2003, the Hong Kong government imposed a HK$400 monthly Employees' Retraining Levy for hiring a foreign domestic helper under the Employees Retraining Ordinance, to take effect on October 1. The tax, proposed by the Liberal Party in 2002 to tackle a fiscal deficit, was introduced by Donald Tsang as part of the government's population policy when he was Chief Secretary for Administration. Although Tsang called foreign and local domestic workers two distinct labour markets, he said: "Employers of foreign domestic helpers should play a role in helping Hong Kong in ... upgrading the local workforce." According to Government Policy Support and Strategic Planning, the levy would be used to retrain the local workforce and improve their employment opportunities. The government said that the extension of the levy to domestic helpers would remove the disparity between imported and local workers. According to The Standard, it was hoped that fewer foreign maids would be employed in Hong Kong. The Senate of the Philippines disagreed with the Hong Kong government, denounced the levy as "discriminatory" and hinted that it would take the issue to the International Labour Organization. Senate president Franklin Drilon said that a tax on domestic workers countered Hong Kong's free-market principles and would damage its reputation for openness to foreign trade, investment and services. Earlier that year the minimum wage for foreign domestic helpers was lowered by the same amount, although the government said the reduction in the minimum wage and imposition of the levy were "unrelated"; lawyers for the government called the moves an "unfortunate coincidence". The measure was expected to bring HK$150 million annually into government coffers. Thousands of workers, fearing that the financial burden would be passed to them, protested the measures. The government, defending the measures as necessary in Hong Kong's changing economy, said that foreign domestic workers were still better paid than their counterparts in other