When was the last time you got a 25 per cent raise out of nowhere? Probably not recently! Then again, you probably haven’t been labouring for half a day at a time in a Chinese iPad factory under allegedly god-awful work conditions.
Reuters reports that Foxconn workers are getting a pay bump to “1800 yuan per month and could be further raised above 2200 yuan if the worker passed a technical examination,” adding that “pay three years ago was 900 yuan a month.” So that’s a pretty nice raise, right? Even if it was granted only after months of continued scrutiny, criticism and general outrage from around the world.
Except 1800 yuan is about $US285, meaning around $US10 a day, or less than a dollar per hour. For reference, a six-piece Chicken McNugget costs $US1.20 in China. Good for Foxconn (!/?). [Reuters via VentureBeat]