Although it is only an increase of one or two yuan, it actually means that labor costs increase by more than 20%.
However, profits in many industries are not so high. Once forced to do so, many companies will go bankrupt.
Therefore, it is unreliable to just force companies to raise average salary levels, and may instead lead to large-scale economic turmoil.
However, Chen Lifu proposed a plan to Li Xuan, that is, the minimum wage income level set in the early stage does not need to reach the average salary level of the local young and strong labor force, and can be lower.
But even if the newly established minimum wage is lower than the current average wage for young adults, it will still be higher than the current income of female and child workers.
Even though this will increase the company's costs to a certain extent, these costs are controllable.
Chen Lifu's assumption is that he does not want to increase the average salary of young workers, he just wants to make the wages of female workers and child workers higher than they are now.
In other words, although Chen Lifu seems to be very radical, he also knows to take it step by step and does not expect to reach the sky in one step.
And this made Li Xuan change his mind about Chen Lifu.
Chen Lifu was very radical at the beginning. He proposed three major reform plans when he first took office. Whether it was agricultural tax reform, minimum wage, or limiting working hours, each of these actually had a huge impact.
However, after Chen Lifu shouted these slogans in a high-profile manner, he took partial and one-sided implementation measures during the specific implementation process.
In terms of agricultural tax, he did not involve the overseas mainland, overseas territories and other border provinces in the mainland, but limited it to the central and eastern areas with more people and less land.
In fact, these places had already been developed before this. When the Tang Empire carried out agricultural reforms in the early years, it mainly targeted this area. The unified agricultural tax and stepped tax rates that had been implemented for many years had already made local landlords
It is unprofitable, and then the assets are transferred from land to industry and commerce.
Then, through the government's redemption and purchase, the land that originally belonged to the landlords was transferred to the hands of ordinary people through renting and purchasing.
Coupled with the large tracts of official land controlled by the government, the agricultural reform in this area has almost been completed, and now only a few residues are left.
This is also the reason why Li Xuan approved the specific measures without much scruples after Chen Lifu proposed them. That is, the agricultural reform proposed by Chen Lifu limited the regions this time.
As for the current restrictions on working hours and minimum wages, Chen Lifu is not as radical as others imagined. On the contrary, in the eyes of outsiders, Chen Lifu is constantly compromising.
For example, the earliest slogan revealed by Chen Lifu was to work twenty-two days a month and eight hours a day, but later when he made a formal proposal in front of Li Xuan, it had already changed to twenty-six days a month.
, a ten-hour working day.
However, within a few days, at the meeting of the ministers on duty in the imperial study room, he lowered the standard again in the face of unanimous opposition from many people, that is, two paid holidays per month and a twelve-hour working day.
Although such a standard is still unacceptable to many people, the opposition voice is not so loud, especially Xie Yiwei, who also supports reform, but is not as radical as Chen Lifu, also supports Chen Lifu. He believes that although the current
The new standards proposed by Chen Lifu will certainly have certain negative impacts, but the beneficial impacts will be greater. As the saying goes, the benefits outweigh the disadvantages.
On the issue of limiting working hours, Chen Lifu made more concessions.
Similarly, Chen Lifu also made what outsiders saw as huge concessions on the minimum wage standard.
At first, Chen Lifu requested that the minimum salary standard be set at 80% of the average salary of government employees in various places. This was undoubtedly opposed by everyone. Even the Holy Emperor Li Xuan did not support such a radical reform plan.
.
You must know that the average salary of government employees is relatively high.
What are government employees? They are actually officials at all levels.
At present, the average salary of officials in Datang is relatively high, because over the years, although the salary levels of middle- and senior-level officials have not increased, but have actually declined, the salary levels of low-level officials have generally increased.
Taking the government employees in Songjiang Prefecture, that is, the staff of various agencies at the ninth and eighth levels as an example, their job salary and grade salary, plus some subsidies, their monthly after-tax income is about
Between ten yuan and fifteen yuan.
It is worth noting that this is only the money they get directly. In fact, they can also get many benefits. For example, they can get some benefits during the holidays, rice and grain are the most basic, and they often get some benefits at the end of the year.
In addition to the year-end bonus, if this part is also included, their after-tax income can roughly reach about 15 to 20 yuan.
It can also be said that the annual income of a low-level government employee is generally between 180 and 240 yuan. For some special positions, such as those requiring advanced skills or dangerous positions, the income can probably reach
More than three hundred yuan.
This kind of income can barely be regarded as the income of the lower middle class even in the Songjiang Prefecture area.
If you don't need to support a family and live alone, you can live a decent life as an ordinary person would, and you can even hire a maid or a follower.
And this is just low-level officials. If it is a mid-level official, that is, an official between the seventh and fourth grades, then the salary level will be greatly increased, and the annual income can reach 300 to 1,000 yuan.
between.
As for senior officials above the third rank, their salary has reached more than one thousand yuan, but at this level, the salary actually means nothing to them.
If the minimum wage standard was set based on the average salary of government employees, most companies would go bankrupt.
I think that the current salary of young and strong male manual laborers in Songjiang Prefecture is generally only between three and five yuan. This may not seem low at first glance, but companies now like to hire female or child labor!
Because the wages of female or child workers are lower, often only about one or two yuan.
How should I put it? Datang has developed industry and commerce for many years, and the economy has doubled. But in fact, the income of the people at the bottom has not increased much. Even though it seems that the income of adult men has increased, those factory owners would rather hire
Female workers or child workers are not willing to hire young adults.
If female workers and child workers are also included, then the average salary of the overall lower-level labor force is estimated to be only about two yuan!
However, when Shanghai opened to trade and the first factories were built, the average income of workers at that time was more than one yuan or two yuan!
More than twenty years have passed and it’s still the same!
However, if it is purely due to the low income of the bottom labor force and lack of food, it is still not the fundamental reason why Chen Lifu vigorously promotes the minimum wage standard and limits working hours.
Chen Lifu didn't even bother to use this to convince others.
What reasons did Chen Lifu use to persuade Emperor Sheng and other ministers on duty?
It’s very simple: If you don’t pay them wages, who will you sell the goods you produce to them?