Foxconn Employees Get 20 Percent Pay Raise

The base monthly salary at the Longhua plant is Rmb950 ($140) but staff said they made almost Rmb2,000 a month including overtime.

A whopping $140 a month... that wouldn't even pay my cell/data card bill...

+20% of almost nothing is still a small amount.

Took em long enough, hopefully that i'll solve there problem...

Oh, it has everything to do with the suicides, I assure you.

It's a good start. A start that will "happen soon".

Goes a long way in China though. Is that a reflection of the raise, or instead your own 'living' expenses?

$140 a month is about half of minimum wage (40 hours a weak)...

Don't forget they live inside factory cities. Their rent and food are deducted from their paychecks. For these companies it is still win/win for them. Sad.

20% huh? It is because of the suicides. Perhaps this will encourage them to live longer?

This bears repeating for your clueless libertarians;
Don't forget they live inside factory cities. Their rent and food are deducted from their paychecks. For these companies it is still win/win for them. Sad.
from ttt222

so now this means they'll commit suicide 20% less?

you have to be seriously underpaying your employees to be able to work a 20% company wide pay raise into your budget

what you wanna bet their food and rent deductions go up to

There is no correlation between suicide and pay rate. Infact if anything, the rich are more likely to commit suicide because they tend to have more time on their hands.

It's good for them to get a pay raise anyway, but don't be so ignorant converting Chinese salaries into USD to judge from "OUR" living standard in North America. They may earn now about 2000 RMB a month (not good, but not bad either), but their regular meal including an appetizer, main course and a drink also cost no more than 30 RMB in most local restaurants. And last year I visited in Beijing, a friend of mine brought me to local bars where local beers are about 5 RMB each bottle.

Can you buy a beer for .75 cents night out in US? I doubt so.

Foxconn has currently 900K+ factory workers, 12 suicides in 2010 are definitely unfortunate, but how about this percentage compared to the actual society? Do you guys know that in Japan, there are still 30,000+ suicides every year? Money might play a roll here but I personally think it's not the main issue.

"falchard
There is no correlation between suicide and pay rate. Infact if anything, the rich are more likely to commit suicide because they tend to have more time on their hands"

does that mean i can await the demise of mr jobs and mr gates?.......... doubtful

They should have increased their pay by 450%, that would bring pay's up to "our" standards, and become equivalent of working at macdonalds.

"vancouverboy
....Money might play a roll here but I personally think it's not the main issue"

the word your looking for is involuntary suicide, because few people stab themselves multiple times before throwing themselves off a building

Pay rates should be relative to the cost of living. Even here in the US, higher pay rates are found in cities that have higher costs of living (NYC, San Fransico, LA...etc). If their cost of living isn't as high, which it isn't, they don't need to be up to 'our standards' or our minimum wage.

nothing at all

Well those suicides werent in vain then! A few people helped thousands

20% sounds nice but they make less in a week than person who works at McDonalds for one day.

Sad really.

china has a suicide problem not just Foxconn google it. Prob the gov way of population control

You don't live where they live where 140 is well above the avg for people of their skill set location and age.

Although they get trapped into a foxconn serfdom where they can own more then they make make making deals with foxconn such as food plans etc.

they do that drastic of a raise and OBVIOUSLY the prices of their components go up. higher prices mean people buy less and the company doesnt make a good profit. use some logic before demanding wage increases. a business is a business, theyre not there to better the lives of the working people. its a fact of life, thats how its always been

I have an HP LCD monitor and recently I got to know that it is made by Foxconn. The same thing happens with the "glorious" iPad which you might be holding right now. Who are the ones to blame, Foxconn or those big companies that stick their logos on the final products?

Those of you who want to give them a 400%+ raise would surely bitch about having to pay $2000+ for your iPad wouldn't ya. Anytime you buy something 'cheap', someone somewhere is paying a price whether if be slave labor, child labor, or serfdom...

Suicide issues aren't that simple. SURE, China's gov could have done better, but the problem is probably more in socio-psycological level than in political. As i mentioned earlier even in Japan, one of the most industrialized countries, the number of suicides exceeded 30,000 for the twelfth straight year... (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suicide_in_Japan) And I don't think of many sweat shops to be found in Japan or the gov created such a phenomenon.

Foxconn and China should open up more suicide hot lines and help centers and 'actively encourage' those who feel depressed/desperate to check in regularly to solve the problem and, finding out what the most common issues to be addressed in the future.

Awesome. You really did just say "make make making" all together.

i guess its better then nothing

Ever wonder where the 20% raise came from? The dead people's wages they would have earned.

That's a horrible thing to say, but in the end, I believe you're right...

One of the big differences is that in my neighbourhood (a poor one mind you), a living wage is $13/hour at 40h/week.
Drinks at the bar also cost $6-10.