As blue-collar incomes rise, a stigma still taints the 'lower' working class
After working as a household domestic in Shanghai for nearly 30 years, Zheng Meilin proudly notes that her income is on par with the wages of many white-collar office workers.
A native of Anhui Province who came to the city as part of the migrant worker tidal wave, Zheng has monthly disposable income of more than 11,000 yuan (US$1,528). It's hard work, but she is happy with what she earns.
She lives in an apartment block that houses many blue-collar and domestic workers – including couriers, takeaway delivery people and women who specialize in postnatal care of mothers and newborns. Many of her neighbors also hail from Anhui.
"We don't hide our income from each other," Zheng told Shanghai Daily. "Most of us have after-tax incomes of around 10,000 yuan – some even higher if they're more diligent."
According to the Shanghai Government Work Report issued in January, the yearly average disposable income of residents in the city is about 85,000 yuan. By that standard, Zheng and her residential neighbors are middle-or even higher-income people.
That contradicts the common perception that you have to be a white-collar worker in a high-rise office building to get a higher income.
Capital University of Economics and Business in Beijing, in a report on blue-collar workers over the past 10 years, reports that their average monthly salary has increased from 2,684 yuan in 2012 to 6,043 yuan in 2023. The rate of increase in that period was slowed only by the COVID pandemic.
A compound for blue-collar workers opened recently. More than 4,200 single, double and four-bed dormitories are available to provide a cozy living environment at affordable prices. Blue-collar workers now earn much more than before according to a recent report.
Ten years ago, white-collar workers earned on average 2.4 times more than blue-collar workers. Today, that ratio has been whittled to 1.4.
"More blue-collar jobs have been created, and workers' rights and interests are more protected than before," said the report. "Therefore, we found that blue-collar workers are much more satisfied with their jobs."
In 2023, according to the report, yuesao, or women who provide postnatal care to new mothers and newborns, earned an average 8,824 yuan a month, the highest wage among workers classified as "blue-collar." They overtook truck drivers, at 7,641 yuan, and takeaway delivery people, at 6,803 yuan.
Zhang Qing, one of Zheng's neighbors, has been a yuesao for five years. She now earns 12,000 yuan – a salary she said is "hard-earned."
Zhang shared her usual daily schedule with Shanghai Daily.
She gets up at 6:30am and works until 1pm, and then from 3-9:30pm. She gets up twice during the night to take the baby to the mother for breastfeeding. The work includes making meals for the mother, tending to the baby and doing laundry.
"The work trained me to sleep fast," she said. "I can fall asleep whenever my head hits the pillow because that's the only way I get enough rest."
Before becoming a yuesao, Zhang was a domestic worker like her friend Zheng. However, she said domestic work was harder and less lucrative than that of a yuesao, so she enrolled in a training course and switched jobs.
Women are trained at a vocational school in Jiangsu Province to become yuesao. Such training is available around the country due to high market demand.
Zheng, 52, on the other hand, has stuck to domestic work. Her daily schedule is fully booked from 7:30am to 7:30pm.
"I work in each household for about two hours – longer if they ask me to make meals," she said. "I choose employers who live close to each other so that I save time on travel."
Zheng said before 2022, she was working about 14 hours a day, and then she decided to take it easier.
"On the one hand I'm not young anymore; on the other, I'm content with the income I am now making," she said. "Both my children have their own families, with decent salaries, so I no longer need to help support them."
Zheng said she feels that young people nowadays have more choices than when she came to Shanghai about three decades ago.
"Back then, most migrants were either domestic or construction workers," she said. "Now they have opportunities in various service industries. Take one of my neighbors for example. He's a courier who makes about 20,000 yuan a month during peak seasons."
But are more choices and better pay inducement enough to overcome the longstanding stigma of blue-collar work?
The current labor market is skewed. Employers are finding it difficult to recruit blue-collar workers, while university students are finding it even harder to land white-collar jobs.
Last December, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, nearly 15 percent of people between 16 and 24 years old, excluding students, were unemployed. Many industries are complaining about a shortage of blue-collar workers.
During the recent Chinese New Year holiday, more than 1.7 billion packages were sent in China, giving couriers a bumper season of deliveries.
Work as a yuesao is a typical example. Huijin Household, an agency that provides postnatal carers, told Shanghai Daily that a family looking to hire an experienced yuesao has to book one in the early stages of pregnancy.
"It's never too early," said an official with the firm. "Although the birth rate is dropping overall, family spending power is rising, so more families than ever before want to hire a yuesao for the month of a new mother's confinement. But many young people don't want to do the job."
A survey carried out last year by leading headhunter Wise Talent Information Technology found that 70 percent of graduates were seeking good-paying jobs, but 80 percent said they weren't willing to take on daily overtime of more than one to two hours. Some 60 percent of students said they would accept blue-collar work only as a desperate last resort.
"The high pay of most blue-collar workers requires hard work on their part," said Liang Shuang, an entry-level clerk in the government sector. "In addition, they usually have to cover all their own insurance costs. I still prefer a job where my employer will at least partially provide insurance for me."
A 2021 graduate in Chinese literature, Liang failed postgraduate entrance exams twice and is now awaiting results of her third attempt. At her current job, she earns much less than experienced blue collar workers, but she still clings to the hope of furthering her education and becoming a teacher or a higher-paid civil servant.
"That's also what my family expects of me," she said.
Apparently, a better work environment is needed to attract more people to accept blue-collar jobs, especially those who are self-employed or "flexibly employed."
Professor Lu Min, from the Antai College of Economics and Management under Shanghai Jiao Tong University, submitted a proposal to address labor market disparities to the annual session of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference last week.
"We should pay attention to the supply and demand sides in the labor market and create a system that is fair to both," Lu's proposal states. "We should look at a system that ensures workers' social security, including pensions, medical insurance and occupational injury compensation."
