Beijing to raise minimum wage 8.6% from January

BEIJING, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) — Beijing will hike the minimum monthly wage by 8.6 percent starting Jan. 1, 2012, to help attract laborers facing rapidly rising living costs, a local official said Thursday.

The minimum monthly wage will be raised by 100 yuan to 1,260 yuan (200 U.S. dollars), said Sun Yan, deputy director of the Beijing municipal human resources and social security bureau.

Previously, the southern manufacturing hub of Shenzhen and major source of migrant workers Sichuan announced plans to hike monthly wages by 15 percent and 23.4 percent, respectively, for 2012.

Severe labor shortages and rising living costs in cities prompted wage hikes both this year and last year.

Twenty-one provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities had raised the minimum monthly wage by an average of 21.7 percent by October this year, according to Yin Chengji, spokesman for the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

Source: Xinhua Net (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2011-12/29/c_131334103.htm)