Blogspot unblocked (finally) in China

Woah. Look! Blogspot is back up in China. That's weird. How many months was that??

One of the reasons I wasn't posting was because it was blocked. I guess that excuse is out.

Shenzhen Increases Minimum Wage

Shenzhen has announced that its minimum salary level will go up on July 1, 2008. This makes the minimum wage higher than that of Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Under the adjustment plan, four districts within the Special Economic Zone including Futian and Luohu districts will see their minimum wage level reach one-thousand yuan per month, up over 17 percent from previous year.

Elsewhere, the minimum wage will rise 20 percent year on year to 900 yuan a month. The local government says the move aims to enhance the city's competitive power and to attract more talent. Shenzhen now has more than 7 million migrant workers, but it is still short of over 740 thousand laborers. Increasing salary may help labor-thirsty companies to employ more staff.

In reality, the minimum wage doesn't effect the vast majority of Shenzhen workers. Even the factory worker on the bottom of the pyramid makes atleast 1600 to 1800RMB per month. If anything it helps the workers of McDonald's and KFC.