Standing on a street corner near Foxconn Technology Group'splant in central China that makes iPhone 5 handsets, employee WangKe says he'll quit if his wage doesn't double.

“I don't have high expectations, I know I'm a migrant worker,”said Wang, 22, who earned 1,600 yuan ($258) in December, afterdeductions for lodging. “But I want to make 3,500 yuan a month,net. That's a fair price.”

Wang's attitude springs from a labor-market squeeze across thecountry after China's pool of young workers shrank by almost 33million in five years at the same time as industry added 30 millionjobs. The resulting wage pressure means Foxconn, Apple Inc.'sbiggest supplier, pays the same basic salary at the Zhengzhou plantit built in 2010 among the corn and peanut fields of Henanprovince, as it does in Shenzhen, the southern city that spawnedthe nation's industrial boom.