Some Chinese provinces are giving young newlyweds 30 days of paid leave to encourage marriage and boost a flagging birth rate, the Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily Health said on Tuesday.
China’s minimum paid marriage leave is three days, but provinces have been able to set their own more generous allowances since February.
According to the People’s Daily Health, the north-western province of Gansu and the coal-producing province of Shanxi now give 30 days, while Shanghai gives 10 and Sichuan still only three.
“Extending marriage leave is one of the effective ways of increasing the fertility rate,” dean Yang Haiyang of the Social Development Research Institute at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics said.
“The extension of marriage leave is mainly in some provinces and cities with relatively slow economic development,” he said, adding that there was an urgent need to both expand the labor force and stimulate consumption.
Mr Yang said a host of other supporting policies were still needed, including housing subsidies and paid paternity leave for men.
According to official data, China’s population fell last year for the first time in six decades – a turning point that is expected to mark the start of a long period of decline.
Last year, China recorded its lowest-ever birth rate of 6.77 births per 1,000 people.
Much of the downturn results from a “one child” policy imposed between 1980 and 2015 and a surge in education costs that have put many Chinese off having more than one child or at all. (Reuters)
