Guangdong is considering further raising the minimum wage early next year to help ease the labor shortage in the province, a senior local official said.
"We have been conducting research and formulating plans [for the province's minimum monthly salary adjustments] for the provincial government," Ge Guoxing, deputy director-general of the Guangdong provincial department of human resources and social security, was quoted by yesterday's China Daily.
"Guangdong could adjust minimum salary levels according to the actual situation in the province and the price hikes that were expected early in 2011," Ge said. The provincial government would need to approve raising the rate of minimum wages, he said.
The minimum wage rate in Guangdong, one of the country's economic powerhouses, was not the highest in China, Ge said.
Guangdong's minimum monthly salary was now 1,030RMB(154 USD), lower than wages in Shanghai and other prosperous provinces and regions.
Many migrant workers were leaving Guangdong for the Yangtze River Delta and other areas because of the low wages in Guangdong, local media reported.
Since Guangdong wages were no longer competitive, the province will face another labor shortage in the first quarter of 2011 after many migrant workers return home for the Lunar New Year, which falls Feb. 3, Ge said.
But he refused to give a figure for the labor shortage.
The provincial government was in the process of taking measures to address the situation, he said.
In addition to reviewing minimum wages, the provincial government had issued a noticing asking relevant departments to do what they can to protect the legal rights of migrant workers in Guangdong.
The provincial government helped more than 158,400 migrant workers claim back wages and benefits worth more than 297 million RMB in the 10 months to October.
During the same period, Guangdong also granted urban household registration to more than 103,600 farmers.
Guangdong now has more than 30 million migrant workers, most of whom were formerly farmers.
