Chinese company will pay for employees to have children

Some companies of China are seeking to stimulate an increase in the country's birth rate with innovative measures.

Travel agency Trip.com, for example, recently announced a surprising initiative: it will offer an annual bonus of 10,000 yuan (US$1,300) for every employee who has a child. Payments will take place until the child completes five years of life.

According to the company, the objective is to make the cost of raising a family more affordable and encourage young people to form homes.

an innovative initiative

In addition to Trip.com, agricultural company Beijing Dabeing Technology has also adopted a similar strategy, granting an annual bonus of 90,000 yuan ($12,000) to employees who choose to have a third party son.

In addition, QiaoYin City Management, which specializes in urban cleaning services, offered an incentive of 100,000 yuan (nearly US$14,000) to women who gave birth for the third time.

These actions are a direct response to the drop in the rate of birthin China. According to the National Statistics Office, in 2021, the rate was 7.52 births per thousand people, the lowest rate since 1949, when the communist regime was established.

In 2020, this rate was approximately 8.52 births per thousand people. Furthermore, the natural increase in the Chinese population, excluding immigration, was just 0.034% last year, the lowest since 1960.

This decrease in the birth rate represents a demographic challenge for the Asian country. With the working-age population shrinking and the elderly population rapidly increasing, aging has become a concern. Questions arise about how the country will deal with the care and support of an increasingly elderly population.

birth incentive

Huang Wenzheng, a demography expert, predicts that the number of births will remain around 10 million for some time before starting to decline again.

He highlights the importance of policies that encourage motherhood, such as career opportunities, economic incentives and even direct financial support to cover the costs of raising a family.

The measures adopted by Chinese companies are aimed at combating the demographic crisis and encouraging an increase in the birth rate.

It remains to be seen whether these initiatives will have a positive impact in the long term and whether China will be able to face the challenges arising from the agingof its population.