The minimum wage will be raised 20 percent to 1,320 RMB (201 USD) in Shenzhen next month, the highest level in the country, a municipal government meeting was told Wednesday (March 2).
The minimum wage for part-time workers will also increase by nearly 20 percent to 11.7 RMB per hour from next month, also the highest in China.
Lifting the minimum wage would help improve living standards, help attract laborers to relieve the labor shortage, as well as optimize the city's industrial structure to accelerate economic growth, the meeting was told.
The Shenzhen minimum wage, now 1,100 RMB, was expected to double in five years, the city's labor resources and social security bureau said earlier. The bureau releases a new minimum wage standard each July. This year's adjustment had taken into account rising prices, bureau head Wang Min said.
This year, the shortage of migrant workers came earlier than in previous years and a number of companies had increased salaries to attract employees, according to Chinese-language newspapers.
Some companies had already increased salaries for most employees by 20 percent to more than 2,000 RMB.
Shenzhen has raised the minimum wage 18 times since 1992 and wages have been the highest in the country for 17 years. Shanghai announced Wednesday it would raise the minimum wage to 1,280 RMB from April 1, one day after Guangzhou announced to hike that to 1,300 RMB.
(By Jane Lai)
