2008-06-02 21:46Shenzhen will raise the city's minimum wage standard again from July 1, in which the minimum wage standard outside the special administrative region will increase by 20% compared with the previous year. This is also the 17th time that Shenzhen has adjusted the city's minimum wage standard since 1992, when the minimum wage system was first implemented in the country. This minimum wage adjustment program has been approved by the executive meeting of the Shenzhen Municipal Government.

According to the adjustment program, in 2008, the minimum wage in Shenzhen's Special Administrative Region (Futian, Luohu, Yantian and Nanshan Districts) will be RMB 1,000 per month, an increase of 17.6 percent over the previous year; and the minimum wage outside the Special Administrative Region (Bao'an and Longgang Districts) will be RMB 900 per month, an increase of 20 percent over the previous year.

Currently, the minimum wage standards inside and outside the Shenzhen SAR are RMB 850/month and RMB 750/month, respectively. After the adjustment, Shenzhen's minimum wage will once again surpass the current Shanghai's 960 yuan/month and Guangzhou's 860 yuan/month, making it the highest in the country for the time being.

But there has been a significant labor shortage in Shenzhen in recent years due to expanding demand for labor. According to the latest statistics from Shenzhen's labor department, the city's labor shortage reached 740,000 in the first quarter of this year, mainly in manufacturing, computer, residential services, hotels and restaurants, logistics and other industries.

Previously, Li Tao, deputy director of the Shenzhen Labor Security Bureau, said that the current minimum wage in Shenzhen accounted for only 29% of the average wage of employees, and that efforts will be made in the future so that the minimum wage in Shenzhen will gradually reach the target of 40% of the average wage of employees.