Same pay for graduates, migrant workers

Chinese university graduates are now receiving nearly the same pay as migrant workers, according to Cai Fang, director of the Institute of Population and Labor Economics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
The average starting salary of graduates is RMB1500 (US$226) a month, while that of migrant workers is RMB1200 (US$181).
Although the gap in their starting salaries widens after a very short while, Cai expressed concern about the impact of similar salaries of highly educated youth and migrant workers.
"Students might wonder why they should go to university because you can’t tell the difference education makes from the starting salaries," Cai said.
Global Times reported Zhao Qian, a lecturer at the Literature Department of Hebei Normal University, as saying that fears of unemployment have led an increasing number of college graduates to take low-paying jobs while they wait for better opportunities.