Will more paid leave encourage parents to have more babies? Most Chinese provinces think so
As couples showed lukewarm interest in having a second child, local governments are pushing out incentives, starting from longer paid paternal leave
Not even a year ago, having an unapproved second child under China’s three-decade-old one-child policy would have incurred hefty fines of tens of or even hundreds of thousands of yuan. But, today, the government is so desperate to encourage couples to make babies that fathers are being granted generous paid leave.
Faced with a gloomy future of a rapidly ageing society and shrinking labour pool, Beijing announced late last year that all couples could now have two children, following a partial relaxation in 2012.
Since January, provinces have been amending their own regulations on how many days of paid leave parents are entitled to.
Last month Guangdong stipulated that fathers could take 15 days of paternity leave. The announcement in the prosperous southern province brings to 29 out of 32 provinces or municipalities directly under central government control to formally stipulate paternal leave.
Gansu, Yunnan and Henan provinces have become the envy of the country with 30 days of legal paternity leave, followed by 25 days in Inner Mongolia, Guangxi and Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.