Contract wages for North Korean workers newly dispatched to China have risen sharply in recent months, but the increase is only inflating what Chinese employers pay, not what the workers actually take home.
A source in North Korea told Daily NK on Friday that the monthly wage stipulated in contracts between Chinese companies and North Korea for dispatched workers was 2,500 to 2,800 Chinese yuan (about $370 to $415) per person as of early last year, but new contracts signed this year set wages sharply higher, at 3,200 to 3,500 yuan (about $475 to $520).
That amounts to a 28% increase at the low end, from 2,500 yuan (about $370) to 3,200 yuan (about $475), and a 25% increase at the high end, from 2,800 yuan (about $415) to 3,500 yuan (about $520).
“The contract rate for North Korean workers newly entering China this year has clearly gone up,” the source said. “For Chinese companies, the cost of employing these workers has grown significantly compared with last year.”
Higher wages absorbed by fees
But the higher contract price is not translating into better conditions for workers. This year’s increase is being deducted under the name of brokerage fees for dispatching workers, leaving what individual workers actually take home each month at around 700 to 800 yuan (about $105 to $120), similar to before.
The cost Chinese companies must bear to employ a single North Korean worker has risen by about 700 yuan over the past year, but the monthly take-home pay for workers on the ground has stayed the same.
North Korean workers sent abroad are known not to receive the full wages paid by their Chinese employers directly each month. Instead, North Korea’s dispatch agencies manage the wages collectively, paying out only a portion each month as living expenses while withholding the rest to be settled after the workers return home, deducted under various names such as “loyalty funds,” mandatory contributions North Korean workers and citizens must pay toward state and leadership-related projects, or state plan contributions.
“The amount written in the contract has gone up, but what workers are paid each month hasn’t changed,” the source said. “The additional increase is being processed as brokerage fees and the like.” North Korean trading companies that recruit and dispatch the workers are believed to be deducting the difference from the raised contract price out of workers’ wages as brokerage fees, then submitting it as their own state plan contributions.
He added, “If you only look at what Chinese companies pay, it looks like North Korean workers’ wages have risen a lot, but the share that actually goes to the workers on the ground hasn’t changed. The gap between the contract amount and the take-home pay has simply widened. For the workers themselves, there’s no change they can feel in their living standards just because the contract price went up.”
This distorted structure, in which rising contract wages fail to translate into higher income for workers, appears to be only adding to the cost burden on Chinese companies while deepening the exploitation faced by North Korean workers.
Reporting from inside North Korea
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August 31, 2026 at 12:22AM
by DailyNK(North Korean Media)