Average Auto factory pay in China

[Snagglefoot]

Over the last 10 years year I have heard that “ unskilled” factory worker pay is moving up in China. However, one source said it was 25 CNY per hour. One CNY is currently $ 0.16 US dollars which make it $4.00 per hour. I heard this can also be supplement by a 500 CNY bonus which would be $ 80 USD. Can anyone shed more light on this?

 

[MRC01]

Whatever the answer is, it makes sense only in the context of the cost of living in that area, and relative to prevailing wages in other jobs in that area. This is often left out of wage comparisons.

 

[CarLuver]

sounds about right. i have a cousin in china that works in a bank. college degreed. his pay is 10k yuan a month or about $1400 US. . his job is considered an excellent paying job


pay is always relative to the area . A bowl of noodle at a local place in China is 10-25 yuan . a bowl of noodles in the states is $10 easy these days .

most of the factory workers in China have for the past 20 years come from poor villages. people may think the pay is low, but its a heck better than farming

For most Chinese housing cost usually takes the biggest chunk of the salary. but inflation, especially food is taking a toll on them also

 

[Leo99]

I've been inside the antibiotic factories in China and there are lot of workers there. Many ride bikes to work and they store them in a big yard all jumbled up. How someone finds their bike is beyond me. The factories are huge with many more employees than there should be based on my experience with American pharma companies. My feeling is that they give a lot of jobs to people so that they are employed and since they are not overly educated, make the roles for the people simpler. I have no idea what anyone gets paid.

My political guess is that instead of having welfare, the government builds a factory and employs a bunch of people there paying them low wages. This way the government gets something for their expenditure and the people learn skills and can better themselves.

 

[CKN]

Nobody is buying "new to them beaters" because of pricing so lets talk/bash about China. Low wages in China-what else is new? This thread is destined to be closed -it's just a matter of time-and a few posts......

 

[Schandyman]

There's always a job for someone and someone for that job.

 

[aquariuscsm]

My political guess is that instead of having welfare, the government builds a factory and employs a bunch of people there paying them low wages. This way the government gets something for their expenditure and the people learn skills and can better themselves.

That's what the government needs to do here.

 

[Snagglefoot]

I’m trying to find out how much the wages have increased in the last 10 years. I wonder why it is so hard to get an actual number? How about this. How much are the Tesla workers on the line getting paid in China?

 

[Snagglefoot]

Another article suggests about $13,000 per year including bonuses. Yes, that would go a long way in China and is about 1/3 of the Tesla line pay in the USA, excluding US bonuses.

 

[Snagglefoot]

Nobody is buying "new to them beaters" because of pricing so lets talk/bash about China. Low wages in China-what else is new? This thread is destined to be closed -it's just a matter of time-and a few posts......

Did you know it was $13,000 per year? I think that’s pretty high. No one is bashing.

 

[Kjmack]

Jeeeesh stating facts is not bashing , truth is not bashing .

 

[Krieg]

I like Costco business model. Money is money. Up to the individual..

 

[PandaBear]

My numbers are probably from about 8 years ago give or take. Factory workers were probably paid about $3-7k RMB a month, then a typical annual bonus of 1 month or so, depends on overtime. Typically those workers were from rural villages so the alternative is working on the family land growing food, and get fed with not much cash (food is cheap if you don't haul it away to be sold in a city), like average 1-2k RMB a year.

This is why there's a lot of cheap labor in China and a lot of villages are empty, only the old people were farming.

Apparently that's not cheap enough so factories are moving to Vietnam, last I heard they were 1/7 to 1/2 of Chinese wages as they have even more poor farmers. Not sure how it is now, but it certainly is still cheaper and less skilled than the Chinese as they just started.

The other reason for increases in labor cost in China: gig economy. Many are doing better with the equivalent of uber and grubhub there and get paid more than working in a factory, with their own schedules (work around kids' pickup drop off, etc), and can work whenever they are not tired instead of sitting around for a "schedule".


Some news article from 10 years ago said the auto factory workers were much better paid than the advertised $1USD/hr low cost Chinese labor, due to the skill required to do the job, and the real cost was about $5USD/hr.

 

[PimTac]

My numbers are probably from about 8 years ago give or take. Factory workers were probably paid about $3-7k RMB a month, then a typical annual bonus of 1 month or so, depends on overtime. Typically those workers were from rural villages so the alternative is working on the family land growing food, and get fed with not much cash (food is cheap if you don't haul it away to be sold in a city), like average 1-2k RMB a year.

This is why there's a lot of cheap labor in China and a lot of villages are empty, only the old people were farming.

Apparently that's not cheap enough so factories are moving to Vietnam, last I heard they were 1/7 to 1/2 of Chinese wages as they have even more poor farmers. Not sure how it is now, but it certainly is still cheaper and less skilled than the Chinese as they just started.

The other reason for increases in labor cost in China: gig economy. Many are doing better with the equivalent of uber and grubhub there and get paid more than working in a factory, with their own schedules (work around kids' pickup drop off, etc), and can work whenever they are not tired instead of sitting around for a "schedule".


Some news article from 10 years ago said the auto factory workers were much better paid than the advertised $1USD/hr low cost Chinese labor, due to the skill required to do the job, and the real cost was about $5USD/hr.

Plus the China model was much like our company Town model from way back. Workers live in factory dorms, eat factory food etc. Part of their wages went to pay for those benefits.

The gig economy gives workers more freedoms

 

[PandaBear]

Plus the China model was much like our company Town model from way back. Workers live in factory dorms, eat factory food etc. Part of their wages went to pay for those benefits.

The gig economy gives workers more freedoms

Not true though. The cost of those dorm (4 people per room usually) plus food was probably about 500RMB a month, yet if you were to do "gig" economy they were on a scooter or walking, and have to live near somewhere with high cost of living, renting a room alone is going to be more than 500RMB a month.

Freedom is real though. If you have kids to pickup and drop off you can always do your gig around those schedule. Whereas if you do factory town work you will have to let the grand parents watch them back in the villages. You will miss those years when they grow up, or you will have to move back home when you have a family.

 

[97prizm]

As the Chinese have started to become more affluent, the demand for higher wages has skyrocketed.
Chinese factory workers are now getting paid more than ever: Average hourly wages hit $3.60 last year, spiking 64 percent from 2011, according to market research firm Euromonitor. That's more than five times hourly manufacturing wages in India, and is more on par with countries such as Portugal and South Africa.
The article is five years old but even then yes Chinese pay is on its way up. There was z documentary that came out a few years back titled "How China broke recycling. " China didn't break anything, they stopped accepting hard to recycle plastics. They tracked a yogurt cup from Littleton Colorado to Guangzhou. Foxconn is flipping out as people have been leaving the factory that makes iPhones and other Apple products due to finding higher paying jobs elsewhere.

 

[PandaBear]

As the Chinese have started to become more affluent, the demand for higher wages has skyrocketed.
Chinese factory workers are now getting paid more than ever: Average hourly wages hit $3.60 last year, spiking 64 percent from 2011, according to market research firm Euromonitor. That's more than five times hourly manufacturing wages in India, and is more on par with countries such as Portugal and South Africa.
The article is five years old but even then yes Chinese pay is on its way up. There was z documentary that came out a few years back titled "How China broke recycling. " China didn't break anything, they stopped accepting hard to recycle plastics. They tracked a yogurt cup from Littleton Colorado to Guangzhou. Foxconn is flipping out as people have been leaving the factory that makes iPhones and other Apple products due to finding higher paying jobs elsewhere.

China 'broke recycling' as much as we broke recycling, by refusing to do it.

Back in 2017 I was told by an OEM that they are moving their factory from Shanghai suburb back to Taiwan because it was getting more expensive there than back home.

 

[97prizm]

China 'broke recycling' as much as we broke recycling, by refusing to do it.

Back in 2017 I was told by an OEM that they are moving their factory from Shanghai suburb back to Taiwan because it was getting more expensive there than back home.

It's happening all over. Over a decade ago or so Whirlpool moved most of their dishwasher production to Northern India. The original factory was in Owensboro Kentucky. A few years ago the plant went on strike and the workers demanded $40 an hour in US Dollars. The ceo and others packed up everything and re-opened the Owensboro plant.

 

[PandaBear]

It's happening all over. Over a decade ago or so Whirlpool moved most of their dishwasher production to Northern India. The original factory was in Owensboro Kentucky. A few years ago the plant went on strike and the workers demanded $40 an hour in US Dollars. The ceo and others packed up everything and re-opened the Owensboro plant.

Why do they think $40/hr is justified in Northern India and what makes them believe the factory won't close?

 

[97prizm]

GE closed the factory and moved it back to the USA. The factory workers for some reason thought that they could go on strike and get American wages.