[Village Chief Xiao Jiayi] records rural life with pictures and texts, writes about "agriculture, rural areas and farmers" issues, and interprets social focus! Please click to follow!
"Workers have the soul of working, and working is superior to others!"
Workers are proletarians. As a migrant worker, what they hope most is to earn more remuneration, buy a family business, and become a "property owner." Therefore, migrant workers work hard day after day and strive for progress. However, looking back after a few years, the vast majority of migrant workers are still migrant workers. Is the logic here set?
If we follow the proverb of our ancestors, "A dragon begets a dragon, a phoenix begets a phoenix, and a mouse's son can dig a hole," it means that one's birth has already determined the future. Although it may not be absolute, it was basically the rule in the past; even in the New China era, the same was true in the 1990s, and "succession" was the most convincing.
In various enterprises and institutions, my father retires, and his sons and daughters take over. The sons of workers are still workers, and the children of farmers are still farmers. But even in those times of material scarcity (everyone was poor), the people's spirit was rich, and both workers and farmers were full of energy.
But what about now? We are extremely rich in material resources but extremely lacking in spirit. Wages are rising every year. For example, 20 provinces have adjusted their basic wage standards this year.
According to media statistics, since 2021, 20 provinces in my country have raised their basic wages, including super-first-class economies such as Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Jiangsu and Zhejiang, as well as old industrial bases such as the three northeastern provinces, and old revolutionary areas such as Shaanxi, Gansu, and Ningxia.
After adjustment, in the first bracket, Shanghai ranks first, with a monthly minimum wage of 2,590 yuan; Shenzhen follows, with 2,360 yuan; followed by Beijing: 2,320 yuan; Guangdong: 2,300 yuan;
Zhejiang and Jiangsu: 2,280 yuan; Tianjin: 2,180 yuan; Shandong: 2,100 yuan; Hu North: 2010 yuan;
Inner Mongolia: 1980 yuan; Ningxia and Shaanxi: 1950 yuan; Liaoning: 1910 yuan;
Everyone knows that rising wages is a good thing. However, in the face of rising wages, current workers don’t care much. Many people don’t even want to know how much the increase has been. It can be said that the increase in basic salary is a mixed blessing for workers. Why is this so? Is it because it has increased less? You can say yes, you can say no. There are mainly 2 reasons.
⑴ Don’t rely on the basic salary to make a living
The basic salary is only the minimum wage. Most companies now have their own salary systems, which do not change with the increase in the basic salary. The same is true for some positions. The salary increases twice a year or even once a quarter. The main reason is to attract better talents and retain talents, so they are not stingy in salary.
Shanghai has the highest basic salary, which is only more than 2,000 yuan a month. However, the basic salary of many migrant workers is 3,000 yuan, 4,000 yuan, or even higher, and the overtime pay can exceed 50 yuan an hour. Therefore, the increase in the basic salary in the province has no impact on people, and they do not rely on the basic salary to survive.
⑵ Wages have not risen but prices
The time when wages in our country rose sharply was after 2008. There were many provinces and cities with an average salary of 400 or 500 in the past, but the basic salary has only increased to two or three times now. In the past ten years, prices, led by house prices, have gone up several times. If there was hope in the past to save money to buy a house, now even in Shanghai, where the salary is 20,000 to 30,000 a month, we dare not talk about buying a house.
According to data, from January to October 2021, the average transaction price of commercial housing nationwide was 10,290 yuan/square meter, a year-on-year increase of 4.2%. Wages have also risen quite well, but house prices have risen on the basis of 10,000 per square meter, which is too large. Wages have risen around 2,000 per month. After calculation, if you rely on wages to buy a house, even a house in the county is a luxury.
What’s more, it’s not just housing prices that have risen, but various service charges have also appeared, and the cost of living has increased significantly. In the past, a family in rural areas could not spend much money a month, but now a normal rural family of four cannot afford to spend less than two or three thousand, not counting various large items.
A woman working in Qingdao shared her monthly expenses. Calculated by miscellaneous calculations, it costs 17,700 yuan a month. However, their family’s income is only 20,000 yuan. However, after 10 years in Qingdao, they still cannot afford to buy a house because there is no money left.
As a result, rising wages bring not only happiness to people, but also the rising cost of living and work due to rising wages. This is also the reason why we are rich in material resources and have no worries about food and drink, but we are spiritually poor. Many people cannot see the way out and are trapped in involution and anxiety all day long, so we miss the past.
