> The work is clearly very stressful and the pay is terrible. The example the journalist gave was two hours of overtime earning him just $4.
Can anyone give any context of how bad this actually is? Obviously it's not as terrible as if somebody got paid $4 for two hours of overtime here in the UK, in terms of average wage and typical cost of living, but no idea how much less bad it is..
It's not too bad. That works out at about 12.5 RMB / hour, more than someone would make working a night shift at KFC here in Guizhou (I expect in Shen Zhen it would be a little higher). I work at a coffee shop owned by my friend here; 6 - 10 RMB / hour is quite typical for unskilled labour. Also, chances are that these factory workers have free accomodation and subsidised food which makes a significant difference.
The journalist also notes that "there aren’t enough workers to fill the positions at the factory as they keep resigning". This doesn't neccessarily mean its a bad place to work. I hardly have any friends that haven't quit at least one job in the last year or two. Modern Chinese culture -- particularly among young people -- accepts quitting your job, messing around for a few months ("playing" in Chinese) and then finding another as quite normal.
How many people do you think are migrant workers? People who come from an area where that pay is a lot more than they get back home, work for a certain period of time before resigning. Then they either go back home or find a better paying job in the new area.
Having been a migrant worker myself, I think this is a great way for the mobility of young people, especially when the jobs offer accommodation too.
In May, Foxconn’s base salary was $350 per month [1]
So, $350 / 22 working days (per month aprox, assuming 2 days of weekend, I don't know if they have 1 or 2)
=> $15.9 per day. / 10 hours per day
=> $1.59 per hour
Earning $2 for every extra hour... is like earning 1/3 extra per hour. Just to compare, here in Argentina, every extra hour is paid double by law. But I don't know if this is regulated in China...
Anyway, given the kind of job, I wouldn't try to stimulate working extra hours, as attention would decrease too much for this kind of monotonous and precision work. So, it makes sense that they pay little for overtime work.
What you're referring to is called cultural relativism [1], and is willfully ignored in most media reports of working conditions in foreign countries.
By not providing any context to the local norms, we tend to compare conditions to our norms and see it in stark terms, while the reality is more nuanced. FoxConn's compensation and work conditions may be imperfect, but are good enough relative to local alternatives they have sufficient supply of willing workers. The "exploitation by US consumers" is an effect of globalization.
Most criticism and remediation efforts should not be directed at the various firms, but at the country that allows it to occur.
Can anyone give any context of how bad this actually is? Obviously it's not as terrible as if somebody got paid $4 for two hours of overtime here in the UK, in terms of average wage and typical cost of living, but no idea how much less bad it is..