Fertility cost in China should be borne by the state
Authors: Wenzhou Li, Shanquan Chen, Jun Wang, Lu Zhao, Dan Wang
Journal: The Lancet Global Health (2019)

At the end of 2015, a symbolic decision was made that all Chinese couples were permitted to have two children, signalling the end of the 35-year-long one-child policy. This two-child policy was put in place to deal with the ageing population. To encourage women of childbearing age to have children, China also introduced a series of incentives including the extension of maternity leave. It seems that in China, women's human rights have received unprecedented attention and protection. Given these changes, it was predicted that the introduction of the two-child policy would be followed by a national baby boom. Unexpectedly, the number of births in China has been declining continuously from 2016. The most popular explanations for this decline are the heavy costs of housing, education, and living, as well as the changes in people's concepts of birth.1Wang E Hesketh T Exploring women's decisions about childbearing after the lifting of the one-child policy.Cult Health Sex. 2018; 20: 1230-1243Crossref PubMed Scopus (17) Google Scholar However, another important but overlooked idea is that the two-child policy has actually brought more implicit discrimination to women because of the increased motherhood-associated costs for enterprises and institutions. Organisations might believe that employee pregnancy could lead to increased cost in three ways: (1) long maternity leave could create the need for staffing adjustments; (2) wages must be paid as usual during maternity leave although no work is being done; and (3) after returning to employment, a woman's engagement with her work, and therefore efficiency, might decline. Laws and regulations clearly stipulate that recruiters must not discriminate and that there must be no infringement of a woman's rights during pregnancy, childbirth, or lactation, but monitoring is difficult. Therefore, organisations can adopt invisible measures to reduce recruitment of women, or terminate the contracts of childbearing female employees. For these reasons, some women dare not give birth.2Schwank SE Gu C Cao Z et al.China's child policy shift and its impact on Shanghai and Hangzhou women's decision-making.Int J Womens Health. 2018; 10: 639-648Crossref PubMed Scopus (15) Google Scholar Fertility is not only a matter of concern for families or employers, it is important to the state. To adjust the age structure of the population, it is not enough to just encourage women to give birth. Facing the aforementioned problems, China can address employment concerns regarding the two-child policy by learning from the approaches used by other countries. For example, South Korea allows an exemption of labour costs of up to 30% for small and medium-sized enterprises in re-employment of female employees who left work for pregnancy, childbirth, or caring duties; Spain reduces taxes on companies that employ women;4China Tax NewsTimely and moderate use of tax support policies to encourage women.http://news.esnai.com/2017/0308/152763.shtmlDate: 2017Date accessed: January 31, 2019Google Scholar and Vietnam entitles enterprises that employ a large number of female labourers to enjoy lower corporate income tax rates.5Vietnam Law and Legal ForumIncentives for employers, female employees.http://vietnamlawmagazine.vn/incentives-for-employersnbspfemale-employeesnbsp-5025.htmlDate: 2015Date accessed: January 31, 2019Google Scholar In all countries, including China, childbirth is of societal importance, and thus the associated costs should be borne by the whole of society, not just women and their employers. We declare no competing interests.