the staggeringly huge record breaking trade surplus this year suggests that Chinese workers are still significantly underpaid relative to their productivity, so it will be interesting to see if this imbalance continues to narrow over the next decade.
According to a China Macroeconomy Forum study cited by SCMP, during the period of COVID, wage growth for high and middle-income groups dropped from 8% to 4%, while wage growth for low-income groups dropped from 8% to 0%.
okay looks like 2022 is going to be a bad year for wage growth
updated these figures for the past few years, here is some csv:
Chinese wages rose 33% from 2019 while US wages only rose 21%, however due to the strong dollar the gap between them has not narrowed much, with Chinese wages actually dropping slightly below 21% of US wages.
(take this almost random selection of figures with an enormous grain of salt, but it does suggest that the Chinese export boom will not end unless and until the US decides to stop running a trade deficit).
