Who pays
Your employer pays for your passage home to your place of origin — the country named in your contract — when the contract ends, and also when it ends early, whoever ended it. The flight that brought you to Hong Kong at the start was the employer’s to pay for too. This sits in the Standard Employment Contract every helper and employer signs, so no private agreement can take it away.
The allowance on top of the ticket
As well as the passage itself, you are owed a daily food and travel allowance of HK$100 for each day of the journey. Most journeys home take one day, so most helpers are owed one day of it; a longer route with a stopover, more.
When it falls due
Everything owed at the end of a contract falls due within seven days of your last day. Your employer may buy the ticket rather than hand you the money, but you should not be left to buy your own ticket and wait to be paid back.
Where the ticket goes
The passage is to your place of origin, not to wherever happens to be cheapest that week. The employer may book the most economical route, so expect a connection rather than a direct flight, and an airline you did not choose. That is allowed; sending you somewhere other than home is not.
Baggage is the gap
The contract says nothing at all about baggage, so whatever that ticket allows is what you may take, and the cheapest fares often allow very little in the hold. Ask what the allowance is before the ticket is booked, agree anything extra in writing, and keep the booking confirmation. This is the commonest argument on the last day and the one the law does not settle for you.
If no ticket comes
Go to the Labour Relations Division of the Labour Department, and go before you leave Hong Kong while the papers and the people are still here. It is free, it helps both sides reach a settlement, and it needs no lawyer. Take your contract, your termination letter if you were given one, and your record of what was paid.
This explains the law in plain words. It is not legal advice — confirm with the Labour Department, 2717 1771.
Sources
- Labour Department — foreign domestic helpers
- Labour Department — Concise Guide to the Employment Ordinance
- Labour Department — Practical Guide for Employment of Foreign Domestic Helpers
Updated 23 September 2026