On February 20, the "Yuwa Population Research", set up by Liang Jianzhang and other academic experts, released the "China Fertility Cost Report 2024" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"), which estimates the latest childcare costs in China based on the data of the China Statistical Yearbook 2023, and quantifies and calculates the time cost and opportunity cost of male and female childbearing in detail.
According to the report, the latest cost of raising babies for Chinese families (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) is generally higher than that of the 2022 version of the report**109%, and the average cost of raising a child aged 0-17 is 5380,000 yuan, and the average cost of raising to undergraduate graduation is 680,000 yuan, which is 5 yuan higher than the 2022 version30 thousand. Among them, Shanghai, Beijing, and Zhejiang are still the three regions with the highest cost of raising babies, with 1.01 million and 93 respectively60,000 and 8550 thousand. The cost of raising a baby in Jiangsu Province is about 720,000,19The 93% increase ranks first in the country.
According to the report, in terms of the multiple of parenting costs relative to GDP per capita, China is 63, although this figure has declined, it is still almost the highest in the world.
In 2022, Yuwa Population Research released the "China Fertility Cost Report" for the first time, which pointed out that in addition to finance, there are two main factors that affect fertility intention, namely time cost and opportunity cost.
Time costs include maternity leave, nursing and pick-up and drop-off of children, tutoring children with homework, increased housework time, etc.; Opportunity costs include the decline in women's job skills caused by childbirth and leaving the job, affecting their competitiveness after returning to work, being transferred or having their salaries reduced, passively losing promotion opportunities, and difficulties in returning to the workplace.
The latest edition of the report shows that parenting leads to a decrease in women's paid working hours, mainly before the child is 4 years old. Women raising children aged 0-4 years reduced their paid working hours by an average of 15 hours and 12 hours per week, respectively5 hours, 5 hours, 7 hours, 1 hour, for a total of about 2106 hours.
The report also explains that raising children reduces the leisure time of both parents and varies according to the age and number of children.
On average, the average weekly leisure time of a mother decreases by 8 between the ages of 0 and 187 hours; During the period between 0 and 18 years of age, the average weekly leisure time of mothers raising two children is reduced by 108 hours. Under the corresponding conditions, the average weekly leisure time of the father is reduced by 59 hours, 82 hours, overall lower than mother.
In addition, after childbirth, women may choose jobs that are more convenient for them to take care of their children but pay less in order to take care of their families, resulting in a decline in women's long-term wage rates. "This is also a hot topic of 'motherhood punishment', which has been increasing in recent years, reflecting the difficulty of women in balancing family and work. Liang Jianzhang said.
According to data from multiple studies, every child born in China can lead to a 12%-17% drop in women's wages. The exact extent of the decline in women's wage rates also varies according to the number of children, the age of the children, the nature of the sector in which they work, and the year of the year.
Foreign studies have also come to the unanimous conclusion that the wage rate of mothers decreases after childbirth, but based on the results of many ** studies, for every child born in European and American countries, the wage rate of women drops to about 7%.
The high cost of childbearing is one of the most important negative factors affecting the fertility intention of families of childbearing age. Liang Jianzhang emphasized. In 2023, the number of births in China will be 9.02 million, and the birth rate will be 639, both of which were the lowest since 1949. China's birth population has been declining since 2017, and the number of births in 2023 will decline for the seventh consecutive year. The number of births in 2023 is less than half of that of 2016.
In this regard, experts related to Yuwa population research led by Liang Jianzhang called for the national level to introduce policies to reduce the cost of childbirth for families of childbearing age as soon as possible. These include cash subsidies, tax and social security exemptions, subsidies for housing purchases, the construction of additional nurseries, equal parental leave for men and women, the promotion of hybrid work, the introduction of foreign nannies, the support of assisted reproductive technology, the protection of the rights and interests of single-parent families, the abolition of the high school entrance examination and the shortening of the school period.
Policies and measures such as the development of inclusive childcare services, the provision of equal maternity leave for men and women, the promotion of working from home, and the introduction of foreign nannies have direct and effective help in reducing the time and opportunity costs of women's childbirth. Liang Jianzhang said, "It is not much for each two-child family to receive 1 million maternity benefits, which is also a direct financial burden for a family." In the long run, subsidizing childbirth will help improve human resources, human capital, economic and social vitality, enhance China's confidence in economic development, and enhance China's innovation and competitiveness. ”
Correspondent: Yang Zhanwang, Yangtze Evening News, Purple Cow News reporter, Kong Xiaofang.
Proofread by Li Haihui.