But it does all the way down on the White Collar side because the information flow is two-way. If they are bright enough to be of service to a multinational corporation— in any position from keyboard operator to executive secretary — they are bright enough to charge employers what the traffic will bear.
If some fat-cat American or European manager thinks he’s going to finance his next vacation by screwing the local help, he’s going to find himself very lonely very fast.
Heck, even the McDonald's and Burger Kings in China have been given the word to stop screwing the part-time help. Which is going to make for more expensive burgers in Beijing, but these days, they can afford it.
This is exactly what my Indian friends have been telling me this year.
I was surprised to learn that my own job category, at a local hire salary scale, in Shanghai CHINA, is paying 600,000 RMB (or approx. 77,000 USD) per year. While this is still only approx. 60% of the same job’s pay scale in the U.S., it is still a very comfortable wage to live on in Shanghai.
Granted, this is a mid-level management position in large multi-nationals and is not indicative of local salary range across the board in Shanghai (which in turn is much higher than rest of China). But it is still quite a bit higher now than just a few years ago. White collar jobs with global companies in China is catching up on the global salary scale.
Well said.