Minimum Wages in China

Minimum Wages in China
Author: Shi Li
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 392
Release: 2020-05-25
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9811524211

This book considers the positive and negative impacts of the minimum wage policy in China. Since China enacted its first minimum wage law in 1994, the magnitude and frequency of changes in the minimum wage have been substantial, both over time and across jurisdictions. The results from China’s experience show that rapidly increasing minimum wages have helped increase average wages and reduce the gender wage gap, income inequality, and poverty. However, the fast-rising minimum wage has also resulted in the loss of employment for young adults, women, low-skilled workers, and migrant workers. Additionally, higher minimum wages have a negative impact on firm profitability and adverse effects on firm’s human capital investment. In summary, the Chinese minimum wage policy has shown both positive and negative impacts on the affected workers. Through unpacking these findings, the book highlights the importance of rigorous research to inform evidence-based policymaking and provides lessons for other transitional and developing economies.

Minimum Wages and Firm Employment

Minimum Wages and Firm Employment
Author: Yi Huang
Publisher: International Monetary Fund
Total Pages: 47
Release: 2014-10-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1498332307

This paper provides the first systematic study of how minimum wage policies in China affect firm employment over the 2000-2007 periods. Using a novel dataset of minimum wage regulations across more than 2,800 counties matched with firm-level data, we investigate both the effect of the minimum wage and its policy enforcement tightening in 2004. A dynamic panel (difference GMM) estimator is combined with a “neighbor-pairs-approach” to control for unobservable heterogeneity common to “border counties” that are subject to different minimum wage changes. We show that minimum wage increases have a significant negative impact on employment, with an estimated elasticity of -0.1. Furthermore, we find a heterogeneous effect of the minimum wage on employment which depends on the firm's wage level. Specifically, the minimum wage has a greater negative impact on employment in low-wage firms than in high-wage firms. Our results are robust for different treatment groups, sample attrition correction, and placebo tests.

Minimum Wages and Employment in China

Minimum Wages and Employment in China
Author: Tony Fang
Publisher:
Total Pages: 43
Release: 2013
Genre:
ISBN:

Since China promulgated new minimum wage regulations in 2004, the magnitude and frequency of changes in the minimum wage have been substantial, both over time and across jurisdictions. This paper uses county-level minimum wage panel data and a longitudinal household survey from 16 representative provinces to estimate the employment effects of minimum wage changes in China over the period of 2004 to 2009. In contrast to the mixed results of previous studies using provincial-level data, we present evidence that minimum wage changes have significant adverse effects on employment in the Eastern and Central regions of China, and result in disemployment for females, young adults, and low-skilled workers.

Rising Wages

Rising Wages
Author: Dennis Tao Yang
Publisher: Hong Kong Institute of Education
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2010
Genre: Labor costs
ISBN:

China’s Workers Wronged

China’s Workers Wronged
Author: By Han Dongfang , Radio Free Asia
Publisher: Radio Free Asia
Total Pages: 41
Release:
Genre:
ISBN: 1632180855

“China’s Workers Wronged,” highlights the struggles and challenges faced by China’s workers during the country’s dramatic economic rise. The book is based on 88 interviews with Chinese workers conducted in recent years by China Labor Bulletin Executive Director Han Dongfang for RFA.

Economic Transition and Labor Market Reform in China

Economic Transition and Labor Market Reform in China
Author: Xinxin Ma
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2018-12-30
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9811319871

This book empirically investigates the changes in labor market structure accompanying the labor market reform in China by focusing on the labor market segmentation problems from the 1980s to 2013. The book also aims to examine the effect of labor policy reforms on individual, household and enterprise behavior, including the causes and consequences of labor market reform in China, particularly the influences of labor policy reforms on labor market performance. Offering valuable insights into the changing structure of the Chinese economy, this book will be of interest to scholars, activists, and economists.

China's Workers Under Assault

China's Workers Under Assault
Author: Anita Chan
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 262
Release: 2016-07-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 1315502119

This important book contains case studies with substantive analysis of Chinese workers in a variety of settings: state enterprises, urban collectives, township and village enterprises, domestic private enterprises, and foreign funded enterprises. The cases include urban workers migrant workers from the countryside, and workers who are sent to work outside of China. The analytical framework for these case studies lays out why labor rights violations have been occurring in China and highlights the contex in which these violations operate and the extent to which these selected cases are not isolated incidents. Moreover, the dilemma of Chinese workers is put into international perspective: the context of the international labor market, the setting of competitive minimum wages in Asia, and the concern for Chinese workers' rights taken up by the International Labor Organization (ILO). This book debunks the conventional wisdom that Chinese workers are thriving because the Chinese economy is booming. Indeed the wage structures of these enterprises of different ownership types contribute to widening income disparities in China. The book uncovers what exactly overseas Chinese entrepreneurship (Taiwan and Hong Kong), means at the factory level. And it calls for a new approach to scrutinizing the phenomena of the so-called Chinese economic miracle and it's repercussions on other economies and labor markets.

Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective

Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective
Author: Anita Chan
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 293
Release: 2015-05-21
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0801455855

As the "world’s factory" China exerts an enormous pressure on workers around the world. Many nations have had to adjust to a new global political and economic reality, and so has China. Its workers and its official trade union federation have had to contend with rapid changes in industrial relations. Anita Chan argues that Chinese labor is too often viewed from a prism of exceptionalism and too rarely examined comparatively, even though valuable insights can be derived by analyzing China’s workforce and labor relations side by side with the systems of other nations. The contributors to Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective compare labor issues in China with those in the United States, Australia, Japan, India, Pakistan, Germany, Russia, Vietnam, and Taiwan. They also draw contrasts among different types of workplaces within China. The chapters address labor regimes and standards, describe efforts to reshape industrial relations to improve the circumstances of workers, and compare historical and structural developments in China and other industrial relations systems.

China, Inc

China, Inc
Author: Ted C. Fishman
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 364
Release: 2005
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780743257527

What will happen when China can make nearly everything the U.S. and Europe can make--at one-third the cost? Fishman delves into dangerous question that not everyone wants answered.