China Wages Policy Backfires as Costs Prompt Sock-City Blues
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Wages at Chen Fengying’s sock factory on China’s east coast have soared almost sixfold in seven years. The 20 percent increase she expects in 2015 may doom her seven-year-old company as profit and revenue fall.
“If things go on like this, we’ll just close down,” said Chen from Zhuji in Zhejiang province, the so-called Sock City that produces 17 billion pairs annually, more than 35 percent of global production. “Many factories have already died.”