Wrong to make employees the scapegoat

DURING THE FIRST THREE QUARTERS OF THIS YEAR, nine provincial areas including Beijing, Shanghai, and East China's Jiangsu province, raised the minimum wage by about 10.7 percent on average, fueling concerns about "overburdened employers". Raising the minimum wage is justifiable and has little to do with enterprises' struggling to lower their costs, said Beijing Youth Daily on Saturday.

Over more than two decades, land prices and financing costs have witnessed steady growth. That explains why more enterprises are struggling to yield more gains. Take for example their financing costs, which have been doubled by banks via a variety of back-door operations. Making employees the scapegoat is hardly a feasible solution.

And it is unfair for some employers to accuse better paid employees of imposing an extra burden on them. A higher minimum wage does not necessarily contribute to the financial burden on enterprises. Quite the opposite in fact, since a slow rise in employees' wages may result in shrinking productivity, which would further stifle an enterprise's long-term growth. That workers worked longer but produced little in the era of the planned economy is a case in point.