ILPC 2026

 This research investigates the design and implementation of wage systems in Chinese factories. Wage and benefits play an indispensable role in recruitment, motivating and retaining employees. By delving into wage-related HR practices deployed by the management, including how a wage is designed, communicated and executed, I seek to understand how organisational control over employees is legitimised at the plant level, and the extent to which it could be counterbalanced by employees.

Previous literature on wage determination is mostly situated in developed economies where various levels of collective bargaining mechanisms are in place. However, in non-union settings, there is not necessarily a common understanding of the wage system on which workers could further build up their wage demands at the plant level. Recognising that wage as an area of contestation between employees and the management, means of obscuring the understanding of wage systems, including the encouragement of wage confidentiality and employee silence within the organisation, which effectively undermines capacity of employees to challenge the management, are explored.

A case study of an industrial zone with strong presence of automobile manufacturing in China is thus conducted, using the extended case method. Data is collected by in-depth interview with HR managers and workers, document research and participant observation on the shop floor and the region, in order to achieve a multilayer analysis of how the local labour market, and respective communities among the management and employees shape dynamics on the shop floor.