Textile and Apparel Industry: Environment and Ecology under the Circumstance of Increasing Salaries

Although the continuous increase in the cost of employment is nothing new, the rise in the rise of the industry this year still makes business owners nervous.

On February 1, Jiangsu's minimum wage was adjusted from 670 yuan to 960 yuan. Since then, Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Ningxia and other places have successively announced to raise the minimum wage. From July 1, Henan, Shaanxi, Anhui, Hainan and other places also began to raise the minimum wage standard, of which Hainan's wage increase was 31.7%, ranking first in the country.

Many companies in the industry are trapped in salary increases. In addition to the company's profits being diluted, they have also triggered some emotional shocks. Even the individual phenomenon of dissatisfaction with wages, such as Xi'an Japanese-owned sewing equipment company's brother company Employees’ strikes occurred shortly before. The main reason behind this is the demand for salary increases.

From 1500 to 2,000 yuan, it is the standard salary for the majority of garment manufacturers in coastal areas in the past one or two years. However, this standard may be "fixed" at present, because it is not attractive to attract employees and retain employees. .

Under the background of salary increase, in order to ease the cost pressure, various economic entities in the apparel industry chain have responded in various ways. Using “job-free work” is the most commonly used means by some small businesses. One day a day can save on wage costs and other welfare expenses at rest. From a short-term and visual point of view, it is the cost-saving rule that best suits the mentality of small business owners. . However, it does not have reference value for larger companies, and when business orders suddenly increase, the manpower will become scarce immediately, and business owners will have to raise their wages to “grab” people. Another way to cope with the increase in pay is to spread the cost to the product price, and the price increase after the pay rise is currently attracting attention. At the industry conference attended by the author at the end of July, a number of upstream suppliers staged a collective “forced palace” event for downstream equipment companies. The former expressed strong dissatisfaction with the delay in the latter’s product price increase, and many upstream suppliers have been unable to continue. Supporting the rising cost trend, who would not dare to take the first step if they want to increase prices, they will target the downstream companies and try to “force” them to increase their prices to find a sufficient “excuse” for their own price increase. According to the author's observation of some branded apparel companies, the terminal products have experienced more or less price increases this year; while the prices of foreign luxury goods are also unambiguous.

It is worth mentioning that for the phenomenon of salary increase, the attitude of many business owners is helpless and worried, and the mentality of being forced to take measures to cope with is more common. This mentality is actually very normal, but if you simply face "complaint", it may not be conducive to quickly getting rid of the predicament, there will be some new negative issues.

We may as well understand the reasons behind this increase in salary. Many people think that the “labor shortage” is the chief culprit for salary increase, and the “labor shortage” is the most important manufacturing enterprise represented by textile and clothing. But in reality it is only a representation.

South Korea's "Korean Daily" recently published a report entitled "China's rising dominoes" is a disaster or blessing? "The article" proposed that "the rise in product prices caused by rising wages may cause the economy to face inflationary pressures". At the same time, the article believes that in the past 30 years, China has been playing a role as a “world factory” with a low wage advantage, and the current increase in salary can be seen as a signal flare for the transformation of the Chinese economy into a large consumer market.

Domestic economists believe that this round of salary increase is inevitable. The “Social Blue Book of 2008” published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences shows that from 2000 to 2008, China’s fiscal revenue grew at an average annual rate of 20.4%, but the average wage of employees only increased by 15.7% annually. In developed countries, wages generally account for about 50% of operating costs, while in China less than 10%. In fact, China’s experience of the “agricultural society-industrial society-industrial profits increase-upgrade of industrial structure-wage increase” process is consistent with that experienced in developed countries, except that China is one cycle later than developed countries. "A late start to the day has come.

The implication behind these views is that if the salary increase does not come this year, any year next year or later may come at any time, so business owners do not need to be entangled in whether or not to increase their salary. Behind the phenomenon of rising wages is the profound transformation of the Chinese economy. When Chinese companies can already manufacture more than 70% of the world's 500,000 kinds of industrial products, when more and more international big-name garments are transferring production lines to China, there is not much room for expansion when China simply expands low-tech manufacturing industries. Upgrading has become an inherent requirement for China's economic restructuring and upgrading, and industrial upgrading will inevitably bring about an increase in wages. This is the proposition that the environment has left for the Chinese garment industry.

In turn, thanks to China’s “demographic dividend,” the textile and clothing industry that earns the first pot of gold, in the late stage of rapid development of the industry, when the advantage of “demographic dividend” has weakened, it is also inevitably conditional on adopting new technologies and new models. To gain profits and embark on a new type of development.