Wuhan, the capital of Central China's Hubei Province, has announced it is setting the minimum wage for university graduates as high as 80,000 yuan ($7,590) per year to try to get its grads to stay and work in the city.
The city set the minimum wage for a graduate with a bachelor's degree at 50,000 yuan per year, according to a new policy released Wednesday night.
For a master's holder, the minimum figure is 60,000 yuan, China News Service (CNS) reported Thursday.
Anyone with a doctor's degree can look for a minimum annual salary of 80,000 yuan, or four times the city's statutory minimum wage of 1,750 yuan per month.
Wages are of course always a major concern for grads fresh out of school, and are one of the main focuses of grads in choosing where to live and what job to get, said the CNS.
But Wuhan did not just stop with the minimum wage standards, it also announced new residency regulations for the graduates on Wednesday, to get more of them to live and work in the city, for example by loosening residency requirements.
It will also provide preferential housing policies and living benefits, specifically, by giving a 20-percent reduction for grads in need of housing, China News Service reported.
"It's not just Wuhan, many other cities have joined the talent war. And China has entered a period of aging society, which means that whoever owns the young talent will own the future," Wang Huiyao, director of the Center for China and Globalization, told the Global Times on Thursday.
The city of Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, published a policy that allows the better students with a bachelor's or higher degree to obtain local residency on July 2nd, people.cn reported.
It's not just China, but the whole world that is facing the challenges of an aging society, which makes attracting and recruiting younger, more talented people even more crucial, said Wang.
