White-collar jobs in China

The China Economic Review recently sent out this blurb in its daily email roundup to subscribers:

A recent report on white-collar income showed a wide variance across cities in China, New Express Daily reported (in Chinese). The report, released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the nation's top social academic think tank, classified major cities including Macau and Hong Kong into seven levels considering salaries, price level, accommondation, transportation cost and urbanization conditions in different cities. Hong Kong and Macau were in the top category, with average incomes of about US$2,600 and US$1,200 per month, respectively. Shanghai, Shenzhen, Wenzhou and Beijing were in the second tier, with average incomes between US$700 and US$750. Lhasa, the capital city of Tibet, is at the bottom, with white-collar workers earning around $127 a month.

Comments

[A B]

Do running dogs that wear a white collar qualify as a white collar worker?

Is it true that only cats enjoy the privilege of not having color matter as long as they catch mice?

[nanheyangrouchuan]

Some Chinese manage to bypass the "face" obsession that pushes everyone to pursue white collar jobs regardless of how meaningless or low paying they are. Grey collar skilled trade jobs are the way to go both in China and the US.

[A B]

Do rednecks in the US qualify for blue or grey collar jobs?

Maybe they need special red collar jobs to match?

[nanheyangrouchuan]

There is no "grey" collar in the US. Blue collar pays pretty well.

[quanlimaria]

I’m from Nanjing , a big city near Shanghai on the east coast. The numbers that you mentioned might be true, China is developing and the cities near the coast is more developed than the inland ones; therefore, Hong Kong people’s average income is much higher than the one of people in Lahsa. But as far as I know of, there are a lot of people who don’t like the term “white-collar” even if they are white-collars. Moreover, they don’t like being considered as white-collars, because neither do white-collars have high salary like gold-collars do, nor can they enjoy the substance of life as blue-collars do; they are something in between. A lot of white-collars in China are not proud of their “collars”.

[Julia]

It sounds quite interesting that there are colorful collars which can represent different kinds of jobs.I don't know whether different countries have the same standard to classify the ‘collars’. In China, we classify these ‘collars’ not only simply according to people’s salaries, but also according to the proporties of their jobs.We often hear ‘white collar’and ‘blue collar’ in our nowaday’s daily lives. It is said that ‘white collar’ always represent someone who work in the office. They are required to have not noly plentiful knowledge, but also a good appearance.They are usually asked to wear professional suits.’Blue collar’ always represent workers who are more often use their manual work than their mental work. I feel sorry that I just know little about the other kinds of ‘collars’ in China. ‘Pink collar’ always represent women workers (e.g. kids’ teachers). ‘Grey collar’ always represent excellent ‘blue collar’.You know, it is really hard to explain that.
We can call both the person who work in the government and the person who work for the industry --‘white collar’.In fact, the former can earn about 1000-3000 RMB per month, but the latter can earn about over 3000 RMB per month.I do not mean that every city in China has the same situation. Just as you mentioned in this article--Hong Kong and Macau were in the top category, with average incomes of about US$2,600 and US$1,200 per month, respectively. I just want to use this example to explain that there is a clear gap between different kinds of ‘white collars’.

In Chinese concept, white-collar is related to a decent life and a desirable living style.I searched the internet for wanting to get the reason that how much money do you think it takes to be a white-collar employee? The answer depends on where he or she lives; and the difference can be substantial. I’d like to use the statistics you showed us in your article,again. It could be as high as 18,500 yuan per month in Hong Kong and a mere 900 yuan in Lhasa, capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region. About 5,000 yuan makes the cut in Beijing.
I got some useful knowledge from the internet, I want to share them with you:
The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, or CASS, released its findings over the weekend in the 2007 White-collar Workers Salary Standard in Major Chinese Cities. It is the first of its kind.
The benchmarks in some major cities at the upper end are: 8,900 yuan ($1,194) in Macao, 5,350 yuan ($717) in Shanghai, 5,280 yuan ($708) in Shenzhen of Guangdong Province, 4,980 yuan ($668) in Hangzhou of Zhejiang Province and 4,750 yuan ($637) in Guangzhou of Guangdong Province.
The report was based on a comprehensive calculation of local factors including commodity prices, living expenses, transportation costs, and urbanization level.
But for some people, the income levels are just an academic exercise.
Liu Meiyu is a 28-year-old architect who works for Beijing Design and Research Institute and bought a two-bedroom apartment a few months ago with bank loans. She said, "The 5,000-yuan standard is vastly different for people who have to pay monthly mortgages and for those who don't."
"A monthly salary of 10,000 yuan ($1,341) might be just right for a white-collar benchmark," she told China Daily.
Lhasa's low figure has also raised some doubts.
"The 900-yuan level is far too low as the cost of living is not low at all," said Lei Wenzheng, a local tourist guide.
A manager at a local department store in Lhasa can earn an average of 2,000 to 3,000 yuan ($402) a month. Public servants are also paid higher there than those in eastern provinces as the central government provides extra subsidies, according to Lei.
Xia Xueluan, a professor in social sciences of Peking University, said income alone is not the determining factor.
"White-collar' or 'middle-class' categorizations means a combination of factors including wealth, power and prestige, not simply income or property, Xia said.
I want to tell you something more. I am not agree with some of quanlimaria’s opinion. I think, In China, people always feel proud to be a ‘white collar’.Not everyone can be a successful ‘gold collar’. Some one who wants to be a ‘gold collar’ must pay too much attention on his or her job. And people always feel unsatisfied to be a ‘blue collar, because of the large population in China and our demand of labor, there are too many ‘blue collars’, and they are always low-paid. Some of the ‘blue collars’ in China even need to worry about their lives. In a conclution, to be a ‘gold collar’ is very hard and to be a ‘blue collar’ is also very hard. Sounds funny, right? I mean hard on manual and hard on mental. It seems that to be a ‘white collar’ in China can be a wise decision. And from what I have said at the beginning of this article, I wish that we can narrow the gap as soon as possible.