all dem years ago, 4500 + accom was ok if you had a family. but not now, not if your wife cannot get work visa and the kids need clothes. yes you can get by, but not nowhere as well as 10 years ago. looks like the only thing that has got cheaper is cars, and employers

@Kurtosis: Restaurant and food prices - maybe this affects all of us, but who'd really getting squeezed here? Have the farmers, the workers in restaurants and in the market been getting a better deal than they had before? If so, I think it should be okay with most of the (mostly western) foreigners I know, but I have a hunch that maybe the farmers and workers are not the source of the 'problem', nor that they are really the beneficiaries either - seems to me it's been the middle and upper classes that have probably seen increases in their incomes. And it's still okay with me if teachers get a raise too.

Seems like commercial rentals have not come down or even increased the past 5 years, but personally having lived outside the 2nd ring road my rent the past year was less than 5 years ago. Home i rented 5 years ago was 3,500 rmb and i rented this past year for 2,500.

In some areas (e.g., Wenlinjie and Wenhuaxiang) commercial rents have skyrocketed - feudal capital accumulation, basically.)

I don't wanna judge here or start a class war, I'm much rather trying to make sense of the job offerings displayed at restaurants (even in the city center) which offer a salary of 2000 CNY / month and the living costs around here. I mean, how do these people live? Has it always been so hard for the uneducated to survive here?

Some of the extremely low salaries include food and board. This isn't to say that makes that kind of job any more appealing, just livable. Mostly those are filled by young migrants without uni. The under educated can survive and even save or send rmb home, but it requires back breaking work, fruguality, living in 8 person dorms, and hopefully some construction work that pays more which however is x2 back breaking.

In absolute, bald economic terms the workers - as well as the farmers - are better off than before; in relative terms, well, that's a lot more complicated, and it's not all a matter of economics. Being a migrant as a result of economic necessity is a bit different from the situations of most of the foreign migrants I know.

in absolute bald environmental terms the workers as well as the farmers are now all using horrible gas engines or ebikes (outsourcing polution to local coal fired power factory) , they should know better and all ride bicycle

Of course 4500 is not enough to support a family. But you don't have to work in a university. Universities pay so badly because the hours are basically part time (as low as 8 hours teaching a week - plenty of time to tutor to make extra money), with looooong holidays and free accommodation. If you get a job in the private sector, you can expect to make at least twice as much, plus bonuses, but you won't have the long holidays or free accommodation or cushty timetable. In Shanghai, you cannot get a decent apartment under 5000 a month, and rents can be as high as 25,000 a month. Of course, salaries for foreigners are higher in Shanghai - the lowest are about 13k, which is enough to live in Shanghai but not save much unless you cook rice and vegetables most meals.

teacher salaries in kunming offered at around 150/h 7 years ago, same today. if you saying expats dont deserve a pay rise, why?. 4500 was enough, but int now. uni jobs ive had were expected to do 14-16 teach hours plus other things like english corner and open lecture once a term. course design and development also expected, as well as exam design and marking. defo not a part time gig. had to do course design as books old and inappropriate in some places. why shouldnt forin teachers in this country get pay increases the same of others/locals in this market (apples with apples). not right to compare uk wage index with china as apples and oranges. a bit like saying people from tier 4 cities who live in tier one cities should only get tier 4 minimum wage if they have tier 4 hukou.