no national set minimum wage here in China all depends on the city.

  No idea but I did meet one girl who was working 10 hours a day, 6 days a week for 500 a month and a bed in a room with three others. She also got fed at work. Jeez, i'm gonna get more than that for teaching a 2 hour class tonight. What a sucky job.

It varies by city and province....in Guangdong it's much higher than most of the country.

Sometimes they're lucky to get paid at all.  A Chinese friend of mine went months without any salary....they did pay for his apartment though.  He finally left after I'm not sure how many unpaid months.

few years ago in Zhejiang that was over 1000 RMB, in some factories lowest level of salary was about 1300 RMB + lunch.

but for regular worker (assembly of sanitaryware) minimum wage was about 1600, lunch, and dormitory

yes, it was more than minimal wages, because there are surprisingly not too many workers on the market, and if the price is too low they easily find another factory

I always laughed when I was told "in China workers do the job for a bowl of rice"... sure, some of them was in the factory in the lunchtime maybe

mArtiAn, sorry to hear about that situation, what part of China was it?
I heard about salaries on the level of 800-900 RMB at least... (even in some small, but the fact is - coastal - cities) so I'll be really surprised if it was in industrial area...

sure, everywhere are sons-of-a-sunny-piece-of-sand who try to screw theirs workers... 

heh... material world....

Minimum wage is only enforced if people complain about it.  My girlfriend worked a job last Summer where she was paid only 3 rmb an hour at a large Cantonese restaurant, 6 hours a week.  When she told me that, I fell to the floor laughing and in shock, this was in a T1 city, Guangzhou.  She said she and a friend just wanted experience, but she felt like she couldn't say no to the boss and felt trapped, so didn't try to apply elsewhere.

maybe the minimum wage is a 1000?

Had a dig around and I found this in the Peoples Daily Online although it does date from Oct last year:

"By the end of September, 21 provincial-level regions, including Beijing, Tianjin and Shanxi had adjusted their minimum wages, Yin Chengji, the ministry's spokesperson, told a press conference Tuesday.

According to him, 25 provinces in total have issued guidelines for this year's wage increase, setting the baseline of wage growth to above 14 percent year-on-year.

Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, had the highest nationwide minimum wage at 1,320 yuan ($207) per month with Beijing having the highest minimum hourly wage at 13 yuan ($2) per hour, said Yin.

According to the ministry's 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15), the minimum wage increase rate will be kept above 13 percent year-on-year across the country."

Source - http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/7626697.html

So minimum wage is usually calculated monthly (and the hours aren't stated) and they vary from region to region but a ball park figure of $2 per hour seems one that is commonly quoted.

Generally, the minimum amount changes every year in a city. Currently, CNY 1,500 in Shenzhen.