Under Chinese law, only 10 percent of a company's workforce may consist of temporary workers. But Zhang says the rules are often not strictly enforced. She noted that companies can also get around the cap by hiring workers under different outsourcing programs that function largely the same way, a strategy that job postings show Shein is using.
A spokesperson for Shein confirmed to WIRED that the company “works with third-party suppliers to staff the vast majority of our warehouse operations,” but declined to specify what percentage of employees are categorized as laborers. “Shein's practices are aligned with industry standards and comply with local laws and regulations,” the spokesperson said in an email.
Because many Shein warehouse workers are gig workers, they are not guaranteed a steady hourly wage, just like Uber drivers and food delivery workers. Job postings and several videos reviewed by WIRED show that while workers are promised a basic monthly salary, their total compensation is calculated based on their level of productivity, a system summarized as “more work, more pay.”
This structure gives employees the opportunity to work towards earning higher incomes. But if the volume of Shein orders decreases, their wages could also drop through no fault of their own, according to one of the videos. In a clip posted on the ByteDance platform Xigua in January, an alleged Shein employee complains that she cannot make enough money because “the amount of goods is not enough.” She adds that she imagined she would have a more stable salary at this point in her life.
“Shein is committed to ensuring the fair and dignified treatment of all employees within our supply chain and is investing tens of millions of dollars to strengthen governance and compliance,” the Shein spokesperson said.
Shein told WIRED that, based on its suppliers' data, the company estimates that junior warehouse workers earn about 7,000 RMB ($997) per month, while senior workers can earn more than 12,000 RMB ($1,709) on average. The current monthly minimum wage for full-time workers in Guangzhou, a major Chinese city close to where many of Shein's warehouses are located, is RMB 2,300 ($327), according to China Briefing, a website run by the consulting firm Dezan Shira & Associates . (this figure excludes overtime payments and other forms of compensation).
Shein's use of temporary workers has been discussed previously. In 2021, Chinese news outlet Sixth Tone reported that Shein reportedly “appears to rely heavily” on shipping agencies in its warehouses, which the article said “have been linked to a host of labor issues.”
But Shein has never mentioned this practice in its annual sustainability and social impact reports, which detail the company's efforts to ensure its suppliers adhere to local regulations and codes of conduct. In its latest report released in August, Shein disclosed that it had hired third-party companies to audit 15 of its 21 logistics warehouses in China last year and found that they were “all…performing well.”
