Plagued by the recent global financial turmoil, some Chinese enterprises, particularly labor-intensive small and medium-sized ones, are in difficulty, and this poses a challenge to employment. The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security recently promulgated several supporting measures, stressing the importance of stabilizing the employment situation and helping businesses out of hard times. One of these measures will see plans to raise the mandatory minimum wage frozen.

Although the halt of wage increase is bad news to the working class, given the current global economic situation, many people support it. They say it will serve to ease the pressure on small and medium-sized enterprises that are already suffering.

Others argue that a rise in the minimum wage would be good for China's economy and ultimately for the employment situation. They say that an increase in wages would encourage consumption, giving a much-needed boost to companies focused on the domestic market.

The initiative to freeze the minimum wage has also caused some anger at what some see as unequal treatment. They say that government agencies and monopoly industries continue to pay well despite economic difficulties, while small and medium-sized enterprises are forced to lay off workers and cut wages. Their argument is that the burden of economic problems should be shared across all sectors of the employment market.

A rational decision

Ma Hongman (Oriental Morning Post): As the mandatory minimum wage is closely related to living conditions of low- and middle-income people, it is one of the criteria of a good social security system. To temporarily freeze the minimum wage must have been a hard decision for the government even when the economy is in tough times.

The halt of the increase in the minimum wage is meant to relieve companies of the financial pressure. Today, some enterprises, especially small and medium-sized manufacturers, are struggling against the shrinking market demand and capital shortages.