Country's wage proportion decreases for 22 years

Beijing - The proportion of China's GDP that goes toward wages has been shrinking for 22 consecutive years, a senior trade union official said on Wednesday.

Zhang Jianguo, chief of the collective contracts department with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), also warned that low pay, long working hours and poor working conditions for millions of workers are triggering conflicts and mass incidents, which pose a grave challenge to social stability.

The proportion of the country's GDP that makes up wages and salaries peaked at 56.5 percent in 1983 and dropped to 36.7 percent in 2005, Zhang said.