China's migrant labourers paid low salaries

Eighty per cent of the migrant workers hailed from China's rural areas with an average of age of 28 years, a report issued yesterday by the National Population and Family Planning Commission.

The average monthly pay for migrants at or below the age of 35 was just 2,513 yuan (USD 397) in 2011, which is not adequate to meet the hike in cost of living, it said.

The figure represents a 29.4 per cent increase from that of 2009, but is not nearly enough to cover housing and health care for migrants in light of the increasing cost of living, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted the report as saying.

Conditions are also better for migrants in first-tier cities like Beijing and Shanghai, where the average monthly pay reached nearly 6,000 yuan, the report said.

The rural migrant work force, constituting the bulk of China cheap labour force has propelled the country into one of the most sought after FDI destinations.