Wages and the division between mental and manual labor in China

Abstract

This paper analyzes the wage system in Mao-era China (1949–1976) and the early reform period, focusing on how it structured the mental-manual labor divide as a form of cultural infrastructure that embedded values of labor and worth. Key distinctions—positions, grades, wage forms, and allowances—delineated mental from manual labor in multiple ways. The paper outlines Maoist interventions, such as “politics in command” and the abolition of piecework, which aimed to reduce disparities but often inadvertently reinforced hierarchical boundaries based on position. In the post-Mao era, the concept of management labor redefined mental labor as productive, justifying higher cadre compensation and enabling a market-driven return to class distinctions. By historicizing these interventions, the paper highlights the intersection of economic policies and cultural infrastructures that shaped the evolving division between mental and manual labor, underscoring the political dimensions of valuation and classification in socialist economies. The authors argue that addressing the mental-manual labor divide requires tackling these embedded cultural boundaries and fostering democratic participation in labor valuation.