Analysing wages and labour institutions in China: An unfinished transition

Abstract

The rise of wages in China would seem to indicate that the demographic dividend has reached its end. A more refined approach reveals, however, that the situation of Chinese workers has not really improved: even though real wages are rising, the share of wages in the nation’s wealth has not kept pace. The reason for this is China’s position within global value chains, where the employment relationship is not solely governed by the employer–employee power relationship, but by contractual relations established between ‘lead firms’ and subcontractors. This situation echoes labour institutional economist JR Commons’ concept of ‘competitive menace’ and analyses of the structural imbalance of power in the employer/employee relationship. We argue that despite the Chinese government’s desire for industrial upgrading and its intention to develop internal labour markets, Chinese labour institutions have shown significant resistance to change making it hard to envisage any shift towards a Fordist regime of capital accumulation based on a virtuous cycle of mass production and mass consumption. JEL codes: B52, J30

Positioning construction workers' vocational training of Guangdong in the global political-economic spectrum of skill formation

“…The non-state actors such as private enterprises depend on the state for protection and market access, therefore, are dominated by the state and transformed into a subsidiary order (Yabuki, 1995; Zheng and Huang, 2018). As a quasi-governmental organisation, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) represents workers within the state (Périsse and Séhier, 2019). ACFTU provides labour information for the formulation of new labour regulation (Périsse and Séhier, 2019) and is obliged to assist local governments in producing economic growth and enforcing social stability (Remington, 2018).…”

“…As a quasi-governmental organisation, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) represents workers within the state (Périsse and Séhier, 2019). ACFTU provides labour information for the formulation of new labour regulation (Périsse and Séhier, 2019) and is obliged to assist local governments in producing economic growth and enforcing social stability (Remington, 2018).…”

“…General contractors subcontract work to labour subcontractors who, in turn, recruit rural migrant workers to carry out site operations (Jide et al , 2018). In recent years, most industrialised areas of coastal provinces have experienced labour shortages as rural migrants find jobs more easily in their locality due to the economic development of inland provinces (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2018; Périsse and Séhier, 2019). Ageing site labour force of low educational level has been perceived as a significant challenge to improving productivity, quality and safety of site operations (Wang et al , 2019).…”

La montée de l’influence internationale de la Chine, une manifestation de ses contradictions économiques et sociales internes ?

“…En outre, l'absence de mécanismes de négociation collective permettant de canaliser les intérêts des travailleurs 6. Pour une analyse approfondie de l'évolution des salaires et des institutions du travail en Chine, voir Périsse, Séhier (2019).…”