A large number of people and enterprises from other nations are lured to China as a result of the relatively high earnings that can be found there. Any company that now does business in China or has future plans to do so would be well to familiarize themselves with the country’s labor legislation as well as the current state of the market in 2024 and beyond.
Explore What is the Average Wage in China
China is no longer a cheap destination to obtain labor due to its rising wages.
Both China’s economy and its opening up have undergone tremendous transformations since the early 1980s. This was made possible, in large part, by the abundant supply of low-cost labor throughout the nation, which helped the country make progress. Since the promise of lower manufacturing costs has enticed enterprises and international investment, a true characterization would be “the world’s factory.” This is because of the promise of lower production costs.
This has changed during the course of the last decade. As a result of the development of the economy, China’s advantages in the global marketplace are no longer in the cheap cost of its production but rather in the high technology of its manufacturing and service industries. The potential of a local market that is rapidly increasing is what most attracts foreign investors rather than the cheap salaries that are available. As a direct consequence of these adjustments, wage growth has followed closely behind the rise in the cost of living.
Wage growth has persisted, but at a pace that is much less rapid than the total expansion of the national economy. People are becoming more educated and becoming more employable at the same time as the economy is booming and earnings are going up. It is hoped that the disparity between rich and impoverished areas would become less pronounced as a result of the significant efforts being made by the government to alleviate poverty in rural areas.
The minimum pay in China is much lower than the country’s median salary.
In spite of gradual but steady rises over the course of the previous decade or so, the federal minimum wage has not, on average, kept pace with rising costs of living. The legislation in each province requires that the minimum wage be set at a level that is between 40 and 60 percent of the median salary in that province. According to the data for 2024 (which can be seen here), the majority of cities have minimums that are about 25% of the actual wage, with big cities having minimums as low as 20%, but only a minority of locations achieve this goal.
Therefore, despite the fact that the minimum wage is a fundamental legal regulation in China, it does not provide sufficient direction for companies when it comes to budgeting or determining compensation. If a company is unable to pay its employees a compensation that is considered fair, the company will have a difficult time attracting and retaining competent personnel.
According to this source, the range of actual salaries is far wider than that of the legally mandated minimum wage. At the beginning of 2024, the typical monthly wage in China was slightly more than 14,000 RMB, which is around $1,600 USD. Other cities in China, such as Chongqing and Kunming, have a little lower average cost of living, coming in at just a hair over 8000 RMB a month.