

Foxconn Plans to Lift Pay Sharply at Factories in China - benackles
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/technology/foxconn-to-raise-salaries-for-workers-by-up-to-25.html?_r=1&hp

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Cor
Foxconn have raised their wages significantly over the last decade and a half;
This is hardly unexpected.

This is how Foxconn's wages have looked since 2004 --

2004: 380 RMB

2006: 400 RMB

2007: 600 RMB

2008: 700 RMB

2009-July 2010: 900 RMB

July 2010: 1200 RMB

Oct 2010: 2000 RMB after 6 month probationary period at 1200 RMB

April 2011: 2390 RMB after 6 month probation period at 1590 RMB

2012: 2590 after 6 month probation period at 2190 RMB

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learc83
Wow, it looks like wages have nearly tripled in the last 3 years and looking
at the numbers, inflation only accounts for a small fraction.

I've been expecting cheap manufacturing to move away from China eventually,
but it seems it may happen faster than I thought.

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Cor
Heh, yup. It's funny how the media neglects to mention how quickly wages have
risen over the past few years WITHOUT any pressure being put on the companies
by the media. These pay rises were scheduled a long time ago - they were only
just put into action because of Chinese New Year a few weeks back.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens once the Chinese workers have
to go back to their farms. The average Chinese farm earns about 300-500RMB per
month ([http://seeingredinchina.com/2011/04/27/how-poor-are-
chinese-...](http://seeingredinchina.com/2011/04/27/how-poor-are-chinese-
farmers/)); will the NYTimes write about that, too?

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learc83
Foxconn also has plans to install millions of assembly robots in the next few
years.

All of this push to raise employee pay will more than likely speed up the
adoption of automation and end up drastically cutting unskilled jobs a bit
faster.

~~~
tluyben2
I was just coming here to ask this; why do robots not do this and why, if
robots can do this, is this not done in the US? Robots cost a lot of money
(getting cheaper, but slowly; wait for the 3d-printable robots), but it makes
more sense keeping it in the US anyway?

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Joeri
You need a manufacturing base. Raw materials, parts, tools, it all has to be
made nearby your plant to be able to automate efficiently. The US doesn't have
that anymore.

~~~
tluyben2
I am curious where this info comes from? I heard the gov is sponsoring robot
production in the USA now; what would be needed?

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Volpe
Great to see this happening!

Good on foxconn for responding, and hopefully they keep improving their
conditions of work.

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ChrisNorstrom
Hmmm... What an interesting paradox.

What made manufacturing jobs go to China in the first place was the extremely
low wages and lack of red tape, worker benefits, safety, bureaucracy, etc...

In the past months wages in China have risen enough to make some US companies
return jobs to the US because they were no longer saving money in China. This
was predicted to happen at some time around 2015 but we're seeing much
earlier. The better the Chinese get paid the less of a reason companies will
have for outsourcing in the first place. Why? Because by insourcing
manufacturing back to the US businesses have more control, don't have to worry
about IP theft, and don't have to wait a month for shipments to come back from
China.

Basically:

Chinese are treated like crap = backlash from consumers + bad for workers +
but more jobs for the Chinese. Chinese workers treated better = more approval
for consumers + better for Chinese workers + but less jobs for China.

~~~
nknight
There's a long way to go before there's anything approaching parity with the
US.

$400/month is still less than $5000/year. Federal minimum wage in the US for
40 hours/week with no overtime comes out to just over $15,000/year, and it's
unlikely most of the workers in a hypothetical US iPhone factory would be
making minimum wage.

Remember, the Foxconn workers are already making a lot more than most Chinese
manage. These workers are getting attention because of Apple's unusual public
image and high profile. There's a lot worse to be found in China.

~~~
davorb
Doesn't quite work that way since US workers get payed in dollars and Chinese
workers get paid in yuan. Once the Chinese government stops artificially
keeping it's currency low, it should even out.

~~~
Volpe
Once they do something they've explicitly said they have no intention of doing
any time soon...

