Average Wages Of Chinese Urban Workers Continue To Increase – China Business

The two largest job seeking groups in China are university graduates and migrant workers. When interviewed, some graduates have lowered their salary expectation to around 1500 RMB a month which is what the most experienced migrant workers are now demanding, an increase over previous average migrant wages.

Premier Wen Jiabao told a visiting Japanese delegation Sunday that Japanese companies operating in China should address workers' unhappiness over low wages that he says led to labor disputes this year. Wen's comment comes after Japanese Foreign Miniter Katsuya Okada called for "transparent policies" governing workers in China.

Hourly wages below a dollar. Firings with no notice. Indifferent bosses. Labor brokers that leech away months of a worker's hard-earned wages. A corporate shell game that leaves no one responsible.

This is environment in which chinese workers assemble our favorite gadgets for big US companies such as Apple and Dell.

On Friday morning about 17,000 workers at a Honda car parts plant in Zhongshan, China, held a protest march to the factory gates. They were demanding an almost doubling of their wages and the right to form their own labour union, as opposed to the government-controlled national federation of trade unions. It was the third Honda plant to be hit by a work stoppage in the last two weeks.

On July 21, 118 migrant workers (mostly from Hubei) were beaten by a group of more than 300 people wielding the wooden clubs in Lintong District (临潼区), Xi’an, after they failed to get back their unpaid wages, and 9 of them were seriously injured. Eight days have passed, not only do they find no support for their life, but also they have to bear the medical care fee.

How's this for perspective? Xinjiang officials just announced that they are hiking the minimum wage from 100RMB/mo to 120RMB/mo (US$18). As a side note: minimum wages aren't determined on a national level.

GUANGZHOU, China (AP) — When millions of workers didn’t return to their southern China factory jobs after Lunar New Year holidays, a turning point was reached for foreign manufacturers scraping by with slim profit margins.

Suppliers in China's main production centers are continuing to experience a shortage in labor. Sixty-four percent of the 239 respondents to a Global Sources survey said they remain in need of workers, despite higher wages and several concessions.

They point out that most of that price goes for transportation in the U.S., rent for the store where they are sold, profits for shareholders of the U.S. retailer, and marketing costs, which include the salaries, wages and benefits paid to the U.S. workers and managers responsible for getting sneakers to consumers.