I have noticed a lot of different types of discrimination in China. Sometimes it is discrimination against foreigners, but usually against fellow Chinese. There is the rural/urban divide, men vs women, Xinjiang vs the CCP, etc. But sometimes there is discrimination based on age. The most predominant is against women over 30, the so called “leftover women”, which is a very derogatory term. This time it is age discrimination in the IT industry.
I really don’t think this is just based on age, but based on paying workers lowly and working them hard, all without extra pay. It is a government sanctioned way to skirt labour laws. Here’s the article: Over 30? You’re Too Old for Tech Jobs in China. From the article it seems that the scheme is government sanctioned.
In a country of 1.4 billion people, many Chinese tech companies are able to move faster than their overseas rivals by throwing people at a problem, and younger workers cost less than their more experienced colleagues. Anxious to keep up with fierce competition, Chinese internet companies often expect their employees to work a so-called 996 schedule: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., 6 days a week, including holidays…
The competition for top tech talent has prompted higher salaries and relaxed age requirements for those skilled in complex fields such as AI and machine learning, which tend to require advanced degrees. If nothing else, China’s shifting age dynamics will force the issue. Forty-seven percent of China’s population is older than 40, up from 30 percent two decades ago, according to the World Bank Group. That number is projected to rise to 55 percent by 2030. Despite the end of the one-child policy, births fell last year to 17.2 million, from 18.5 million in 2016. He, the tech recruiter, remains hopeful that age discrimination will eventually disappear in China. A graying population means there will be fewer young candidates to choose from, she says. “If you have no more young employees, you will have no other choice.”
I can only hope that as China tries to accelerate their IT endeavors that they will run out of developers 30 years and younger, and then recruit older and more experienced workers, all while following Chinese labour law.
Yes, developers in their 30s do marry and have families, and yes, they need to go home and take care of their families. But this is not only natural but also the law in China. The longer term implication is that if you opt for a career in IT in China, your career will only be a short 8-9 year period, if you are lucky. With this known, why would a young person bank on a career in IT in China? If you decide to get a masters, which takes another 2 years, your career is cut down yet another 2 years. This is a disincentive to study further. There seems to be no flexibility in the practice, and with the discrimination backed by the CCP, there will be no ending of the practice soon.
Even the recruiters are discriminated against! How is that for a punch in the face? The very odd thought is that due to China’s One Child policy there is a demographic wave coming that will severely restrict young people entering the workforce. How will this discriminatory practice continue when this wave hits China?
There is already rampant discrimination in China. Maybe this is China’s way to cut through the huge population, I do not know.
Acute in China is the lack of human resources and management skills. China continues to rely on their huge population to get ahead. While more people go to university, if a developer loses his livelihood at 30 years old and is forced to do something else, this is China’s loss of development talent. If China is to overtake the West in IT, they will need all the help they can get. Throwing away tech people at 30 years old seems such a huge waste. Still, this gives the West hope to combat China’s huge population.
Companies here in Toronto, Canada also discriminate against age. I have friends in the US that experience the same discrimination, but it is not at the ripe age of 30. This is very odd. While age discrimination is difficult to prove, the flouting of labour laws here in North America, without overtime pay, would not be tolerated. China has a long way to go in treating workers fairly.
Meanwhile, The 20-year-old entrepreneur is a myth, according to study
In theory, we know that with age a lot of benefits accumulate,” Kim said. “For instance you get a lot of human capital from experience, you also get more financial resources as you age, as well as social connections, all of which will likely boost your odds of success as an entrepreneur…
If you’re 22 or maybe just coming out of an MBA program, and there is this social perspective that you should be an entrepreneur right now, rethink that, because you might have a great idea but you might not have the right skills or experience to really propel that idea,” Kim said. “Think about career paths as options, not just as absolute paths.
Addendum 2018 Apr 23 Suitable for men: China’s problem with job ads
Human Rights Watch identified discrimination in hiring as a major reason for the gender gap, which it said was “a phenomenon on clear public display in employment recruiting advertisements.
It said government and private sector job ads in China often specified a requirement of preference for men, affecting both who applied for jobs and ultimately who got hired.
The study points out that discriminatory practices were rife in common low-paying jobs, but were also widespread in ads for prestigious positions…
But sometimes women’s physical attributes are used in job postings to attract male applicants. HRW officials said that in recent years, China’s biggest tech companies including Tencent, Baidu and Alibaba had repeatedly published recruitment ads boasting that there were “beautiful girls” or “goddesses” working for the companies, with some male employees commenting that was the primary reason for them to join those companies.
