Da Bei Nong Group, an agricultural technology company in Beijing, is offering up to 90,000 yuan (US$14,124) in cash and extra leave of up to 12 months for female staff and an extra nine days for males, if they are expecting a baby, the National Business Daily reported on Monday.
The company has become the most generous employer in China so far in encouraging births as local governments issue incentives amid China’s three-child policy to prevent a looming ageing demographic crisis.
Employees of the company will be rewarded with 30,000 yuan (US$4,708) for having their first child, and the amount will double for the second and triple for the third, according to a plan recently released by the company.
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China tackles challenges posed by its ageing population
China tackles challenges posed by its ageing population
Maternity leave will at the same time increase by 1 month, 3 months and 12 months respectively, while paternity will increase by nine days regardless of the number of children, based on government standards.
China’s national policy offers a maternity leave of 98 days for women, but none for the father. Local government regulations normally offer extra leave for female employees and a paternity leave ranging from a week to a month.
“On the one hand, we rolled out the plan because the government is encouraging births. On the other, many provinces do have low birth rates, which the government pays much attention to,” the firm’s board secretary Chen Zhongheng was quoted as saying.
“We believe that section heads should take the lead in having more babies. They should play a leading role as long as their age and condition allow,” he said.
He added that this would give staff a sense of security and increase motivation.
The firm, established in 1993 and headquartered in Beijing, had a revenue of 23.4 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion) in the first three quarters of 2021.
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Professor Hu Zhan, a population expert from Fudan University, said: “It’s good that enterprises are shouldering social responsibility by issuing birth incentives, but the point is whether they are just short-term measures riding the wave of public attention on demographic issues, or sustainable, long-term benefits.”
As for government policies, experience from Japan, South Korea and Europe shows that financial incentives have limited influence on people’s willingness to raise children, he noted.
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How much does it cost to raise a child in China?
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“Raising a kid is a long-term, systematic process and the willingness to have kids can’t be changed in a short term. Overemphasis on financial support might also lead to continuous growth in government spending, and even result in a backlash when the subsidies are reduced,” he said.
Either for the government or employers, providing services to ease child-rearing pressure and improve work-family balance is an effective solution instead, he added.
A few other companies have reportedly offered incentives for births as China shifted its birth control policy in the past decade, but none has been as generous as Da Bei Nong.
Local governments have also issued preferential policies in recent months since the central government announced to allow each family to have three children in May 2021.
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Jilin province, which has the second-lowest fertility rate in China, announced last month that it would provide up to 200,000 yuan (US$31,400) in loans to married couples that planned on having children, with interest rate deducted depending on the number of children they have.
The number of newborns in China has dropped for four consecutive years since 2016. The year 2020 witnessed a record low of 12 million, down from 14.65 million in 2019.
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