The Influence Of The Increase On Minimum Wage Standard On Tourism Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

The minimum wage is an important policy to improve the national income distribution structure in China.It plays a significant role in ensuring the livelihood of the low-income families and improving the income distribution pattern.The rise of minimum wage will increase the labor cost and the risk of operation.As the enterprise resource is limited,the profit will shrink and enterprise will take measures to counter the impact of rising cost,for example laying off staff or hiring part-time staff.From the perspective of dialectical materialism,though the system is thoroughly considered before it is formulated,some problems will inevitably arise in the process of implementation.Moreover,the inconsistency of central government policy and local governments is common.The minimum wage system is no exception.In view of the importance of the minimum wage system,this article attempts to explore the potential impact of this system from the perspective of Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR).As labor-intensive tourism companies feature simultaneous production and consumption,distinct off-peak and peak seasons,and low profit margins,the impact of the minimum wage system on tourism enterprises is more evident than other industries.Therefore,tourism companies are more likely to fall into business difficulties when they encounter negative impacts,and their motivation to resist risks by reducing their investment in social responsibility will increase.Based on the theories of idle resources and trade-offs,this paper analyzes the inputs of tourist enterprise in response to the increase of minimum wage.Taking 42 listed tourism companies from 2010 to 2018 as a sample,the paper explores the impact of minimum wage on tourism enterprises and its driving mechanism.The research findings are as follows: the study finds that a minimum wage increase will have a significant negative impact on tourism CSR performance when controlling the variables such as firm characteristics and year.It confirms that the enterprise operating capability and the types of business ownership make a difference,and that the negative impact of the minimum wage on CSR performance is more pronounced among poorly run and private tourism enterprises.The study shows that the increase in the minimum wage will largely reduce the commitment made by firms in employee,environment,communities and other social responsibilities as well as increase the salary level of tourism enterprise employees,but has no significance impact on shareholder,supplier,customer and other strategic social responsibilities.Further research shows that the increase in the minimum wage has indeed increased the salary level of tourism enterprise employees,but it will have a negative impact on other benefits of employees.The findings present how tourism companies can achieve the internal balance of CSR facing the adverse impact of minimum wage increases from the perspective of trade off theory,and help government to rationally anticipate the economic impact on labor-intensive enterprises after the adjustment of the minimum wage standard,which is of great significance for the establishment of a sound mechanism for evaluating,monitoring,and adjusting the effectiveness of labor protection policies.