Adjusting for cost of living, do blue-collar workers earn less in China than in the USA?

[Boojatta]

[Captain Hilts]

1. Yes. They often live in crowded, squalor in dorms. nt

[JonQ]

2. Yes

[endless october]

3. a lot of them live in the factories.

so my guess is yes.

[Brickbat]

4. Yes, and of course wage-vs.-cost-of-living is not the only thing to look at.

[sandnsea]

5. Heard of them being run to death?

It's horrible in China. Shameful. It's just more labor exploitation. Corporations just move from country to country, just like they used to move from region to region in the US and pit us against each other. Trade isn't what's wrong. Corporatism is what's wrong, and that could be defined as corporations that never die because that isn't what a corporation was supposed to be.

[izquierdista]

6. I would say yes

They still are trying to buy their first car, and their per capita meat consumption is only half of what it is in the US. They are coming up in the world, but they were starting in a very deep hole. They probably won't catch up to a US level of consumption for another two or three decades (at the rate they are going).

[Fresh_Start]

7. why ask about the blue collar workers instead of asking

about CEO's and other executives?

Doesn't executive compensation play into the cost differences?
Would the people screaming the US workers are overpaid be willing to accept their counterparts wages from China?

[OHdem10]

8. China does not have a real middle class. Why do they get all

factories and mfg.--Cheap Labor, often slave wages.

Until the Financial Crisis, the line out of China: The workers
make items for sale in US, which they cannot afford for themselves.

The Meltdown here will force China to raise wages and start
to develop their own middle class. They will then have their
own market for the items they produce. This may be wishful
thinking on my part. With all of our people out of work they
cannot depend on America as their primary market in which to
sell their stuff.

[iamtechus]

9. The answer lies at bls.gov -- Your tax dollars at work:

                                                     Average
                                               Annual compensation
   Category of manufacturing workers           per employee (2002)
                                 
                                                            U.S.
                                                 Yuan      dollars
 Total for manufacturing urban units
  and TVE 's1 ..............................    10,363     $1,252
 Manufacturing urban units .................    17,152      2,071
   On-post urban manufacturing
      staff and workers ....................    16,920      2,043
   Other urban manufacturing
      employment ...........................    26,511      3,202
 Manufacturing TVE's1 ......................     7,481        904
   Large-scale manufacturing TVE's1              9,611      1,161

http://www.bls.gov/