Twenty-nine of the 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions on the Chinese mainland increased their minimum wage standards in 2006, Minister of Labor and Social Security Tian Chengping reported at a national work conference.

Shenzhen City topped the minimum wage list, with a monthly rate of 810 yuan (US$104), while Jiangxi Province remained at the bottom, with 270 yuan (US$35) every month.

The increases around the country were slight. Shanghai, one of the country's most expensive places to live in, upped its minimum wage standards by 60 yuan a month to 750 yuan.

Tian said 2006 had seen breakthroughs in improving relations between employers and employees.

He also said 83.9 percent of employees signed work contracts with their employers in 2006, 3.9 percent higher than the Ministry's set target.

Currently, China has 221 labor dispute arbitration organizations, 106 of which were newly established in 2006, he said.

The Ministry also inspected 789,000 employers and asked employers to sign supplementary labor contracts with 7.23 million employees, repay 3.09 billion yuan of defaulted wages to laborers and provide 2.67 billion yuan in social security fees.

(Xinhua News Agency January 21, 2007)