Cascale’s newly released China Country Report—intended to guide brands and manufacturers with data-driven insights—contains major factual errors in its minimum wage data, misreporting figures by up to 50%. This undermines the credibility of its social compliance tools like Higg FEM and SLCP, which rely on accurate wage benchmarks for factory audits. The report’s outdated numbers raise serious concerns about data integrity and the reliability of sustainability assessments in China’s apparel sector.
1. Cascale Claims “Guangxi’s Minimum Wage Is 1,000 RMB/Month”
On September 17, Cascale (formerly Sustainable Apparel Coalition), the parent company of Higg, released a report titled China Country Report: Macroeconomic and Sustainability Analysis. It covers energy, labor, exports, consumer markets, and policy environments—seemingly authoritative at first glance.
But a glaring error quickly stood out: the report’s data on China’s minimum wage is wildly inaccurate, with discrepancies reaching 50%.
On page 14, Cascale lists minimum wages as:
- Guangxi: 1,000 RMB/month
- Shanghai: 2,420 RMB/month
Wait—Guangxi’s minimum wage is 1,000 RMB? That would be true only if we were back in 2015 ！
According to official data from local labor bureaus (as of July 1, 2025):
- Guangxi: 1,870 RMB/month
- Shanghai: 2,740 RMB/month
That means:
- Cascale understated Guangxi’s minimum wage by 870 RMB—a 50% error
- Shanghai’s figure is off by 320 RMB
Even if the report was finalized before July’s wage adjustment, the previous figures were:
- Guangxi: 1,690 RMB
- Shanghai: 2,690 RMB
So the report is still significantly inaccurate.
2. A Social Compliance Standard That’s Not Compliant with Data?
Cascale’s Higg tools (Higg FEM, Higg FSLM, and SLCP) are widely used for social responsibility audits. One of their core functions is factory audit and data collection—where minimum wage is a foundational metric.
Cascale holds wage data from thousands of factories. They have the capacity—and responsibility—to cross-check and update wage standards internally.
Yet instead of using their own data, they cited a third-party source with obvious errors. It’s like ignoring your own gold mine to go scavenging for plastic bottles.
3. Minimum Wage Is the Bedrock of Social Audits
Minimum wage is a critical benchmark in social compliance and sustainability assessments. It affects:
- Whether factories meet wage standards
- Whether workers earn a living wage
- Risk ratings and data analysis downstream
If the base data is wrong, everything built on it—calculations, analytics, insights—becomes unreliable.
Cascale’s report aims to offer “data-driven insights into China” for brands and manufacturers. But with such basic and fatal errors, what insights can truly be trusted?
4. How to Reliably Check Minimum Wage?
Cascale and the report’s authors should’ve read my earlier article from 2024: How to Reliably Check Minimum Wage Standards. It introduces a reliable website maintained by ESTS (not an ad, just a recommendation), which updates provincial wage data in China regularly and accurately.
https://www.estsglobal.com/zh-CN/resources/min_wages
Author: CSR Audit Researcher
Last Updated: October 10, 2025