Chinese wages are on the rise. No reliable figures for average wages exist; the government's economic data are notably unreliable. But factory owners and experts who monitor the nation's labor market say that businesses are having a hard time finding able-bodied workers and are having to pay the workers they can find more money. And higher wages in China are likely to lead to higher prices in the United States ? at the mall, at the grocery, even at the gas pump. Chinese companies are already passing along some of their higher costs to overseas customers. Prices for goods from China, after years of gradual decline, have risen 1.2 percent since February, according to the Labor Department.
See "Wages rise in China as businesses court the young", Keith Bradsher, International Herald Tribune, August 28, 2007