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Foxconn Raises Shenzhen Factory Worker Wages By 200 RMB

by on Friday, May 28, 2010 76 comments comments

iPhone Girl.

From KDS:

Good news has arrived, Shenzhen Foxconn is increasing wages/salaries

Number of employees: 450,000

200 [RMB] raise per person per month.

2400 [RMB] raise per person per year.

450,000 * 2400 [RMB] = 1,080,000,000 [1.08 billion RMB = ~158,823,529 USD].

13 idiots commit suicide

exchanged for 1.08 billion real money.

This transaction, as a Chinese person,

is absolutely worth it.

News graphic of Foxconn raising wages for Shenzhen factory workers.

Comments from KDS:

香烟:

Not even 200 USD!!emoticon

射了色 一:

If people keep jumping, then what?

困无醒:

If other places [workers in other companies] copies them, then what?

LEO:

If the money wasn’t enough, then why not just quit, why suicide jump? [They're just] stupid cunts.
emoticon

社会主义好:

Purely a rumor. Didn’t some people say it was 2000 yuan? Why is it only 900 yuan [here]?

良心:

Taiwan’s Hon Hai Precision has decided to give fsk [Foxconn] Shenzhen factory workers an additional 20% pay

Implementation date not yet been set. This will reduce Hon Hai’s operating profit by 10-12% Hon Hai.
The result of using lives and blood to struggle [for something], is this a happy result or a sad result?

圣母玛利亚:

If they increase [the pay], then they are admitting that they were exploiting [the workers], [so I believe they] definitely will not increase…

胆固醇: [responding to 社会主义好]

If it were 2000, Foxconn might as well just shut down.

我是哈哈: [responding to 胆固醇]

2000 is what they get after working overtime every day and every night. emoticon

阿鲁:

2000 is including overtime pay. Of course, their overtime hugely exceeds 50 hours every month.

diamond:

Adding this amount of money is not that simple.
Shanghai is the same. The base salary given is very low, but when combined with overtime pay and various subsidies, the [total] salary looks not bad, however…doing this the company can pay less taxes and fees.

Foxconn is the same. Increasing Foxconn employees’ base by by 200 [RMB] will definitely cost more than just 200 [RMB] per month.
Laborers mainly rely on overtime to make money, so with their base salary increasing 20% or more, their [total] salary could double or triple, and 1 billion or so is not enough to cover this.

Some people don’t account for these, only looking at the small salary on the surface, so why is it that Foxconn attracts so many uneducated workers to join them? 900, go ahead and ask the migrant workers around you would they would work [for that amount]? Apart from the wages, there are a few things that smaller factories simply aren’t able to match Foxconn on.
Paying wages on time, never being in arrears.
Providing meals and board, at a level far better than the average small factory, with various entertainment facilities like swimming pools and whatnot.
Providing transportation to and from work, providing laundry service, I’ve never heard of any other factory doing these.

社会主义好: [responding to diamond]

Labor camps are like this too.

前街男孩: [responding to 社会主义好]

emoticons

diamond: [responding to 社会主义好]

The difference between labor camps and Foxconn is: At a labor camp, just because you want to leave, you can, while at Foxconn, if you don’t want to work anymore, you can simply leave.

Actually, everyone already knows the reasons behind the Foxconn suicide jumps, it’s just that they can’t be publicly admitted. Foxconn doesn’t just have a factory in Shenzhen, they have many of them in Taiwan, Hong Kong, the United States, Europe, with a total of over 900,000 people with Shenzhen only being a little more than half.

A Foxconn cafeteria.

A Foxconn cafeteria.

A basketball court at a Foxconn factory in Shenzhen that produces iPhones.

A basketball court at Foxconn's Shenzen factory that produces iPhones.

About 180 Foxconn workers got food poisoning in September 2006.

Shenzhen Foxconn workers receiving medical care after 180 got food poisoning in September 2006.

  • Anon

    Hope this doesn’t give the Honda strikers any ideas.

  • 马宇

    i’m afraid you know so little about china but how could you say so much? I’m chinese and i love our country .we all think it will be more better. These websites …ugly and 片面 有预谋 。forgive my poor English

  • Kawaii

    The iphone chick is cute.
    I’d date her…too bad she’s a delta at foxconn

  • Don

    Ok, I’ve never commented befre, but I just did the math frm the “13 people for 200 yuan a month is absolutely worth it.” line. That means that a Chinese person is worth about 15.4 RMB a month. So I can rent a family (grandparents included) for the price of a pizza at Papa John’s. Really?!?!?!?

    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buns Bakery

      Yeah, but that doesn’t include upkeep. You wouldn’t believe the maintenance costs of a 奶奶…most of it goes into bankrolling her mahjong habit.

    • bai ren

      is that 200 divided by 13 or 800 (more or less) times 200? come on, soliders in armies are worth less than this when related to economic inputs of their labour and death. with this result those 13 so called unfidel (apologizes for the terrible spelling) workers who turned their backs on their marents are heros of the 老百姓. they paid for the battle to help the common person, and this battle was not their personal one in the community but the impact it made on global media (both formal and nonformal)

  • BooB Sim Kheng Hwee

    If someone want to die, what can you do about it?

    Let him or her fulfill his / her wish and let him / her die.

  • Mike_In_Zhengzhou

    Why is the computer generated employee in that news image of a foreigner? Dark eyebrows and dyed hair aside, it looks like a foreigner. Just a question.

    Someone really needs to open up those books. If they can swiftly handle 158 million USD/yr for the sake of saving face, I’m pretty sure they could go for 280-300 million USD/yr to fairly compensate their valued employees.

  • Karma

    So Steve Jobs from Apple has obviously got on his iphone and told Foxconn to sort this mess out. It doesn’t fit in with our Trendy image Mkay….ok….Mkay.

    The 20% raise is great but was money the sole cause of these tragedy or is there a more underlying social problem that still hasn’t been addressed. I guess we will fine out when the next one slips through the net.

  • Joe

    I see this setting some sort of trend. They’re worried about copy cat jumpers now, just wait till employees find out that you can get wages raised by doing drastic things. I agree that the wages are low, but they are pretty much normal. Although I’m no expert on China’s labor market. Yes they work long painful hours, yes the wages are lower then the rest of the world, yes you can get a job as a security guard for the same amount of money doing nothing but sleep and qq all day with no over time. Costs increase by 20% and you don’t think that won’t translate into increase costs for Apple and other companies manufacturing there. I see this becoming some sort of issue. I’m sure that Foxconn had a ton of pressure from the Gov and it’s clients. But in typical fashion, they just sweep the problem under the rug. They can’t fix the underlying social problem of it’s workers. But what can they do, they can save face and act like the good guys and raise salaries. Really you can’t do anything about the workers social problems. It’s, from a Western perspective, a byproduct of China’s society as a whole. What’s to be done.

  • eattot

    still not ok yet

  • kimboslice

    I feel sad for the Chinese workers. China is manufacturing everything these days, and the profits are huge for companies like Apple. My small investment in Apple stock last year increased much more than the yearly wage of those who made the products. This seems wrong, but what is the solution?

    • Kawaii

      the solution is to donate all ur money to china

    • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buns Bakery

      Buy more stocks.

  • http://www.foarp.blogspot.com FOARP

    I used to work at Foxconn, ate a few times in the cafeteria in the photo above (5 yuan for what is basically pigswill, or quickly becomes so).

    All I can say for my former employers is that they were not perfect, but in no way significantly worse than any large-scale employer in China, and especially not Shenzhen.

    • real name

      (‘used to work’ does not describe your position there)
      in one web discussion where took part one of former foxconn employee in europe (student, holiday job only) was said even earning million such kind of work + combined with overtimes (they have to ask for them also in eu even it is illegal, refuse = leave) will not make you satisfied
      what do you think? would be better hear they will deal with overtimes keeping the same final wage? or really just higher wage is solution?

      • http://www.foarp.blogspot.com FOARP

        Since in my current job I often work 13-14 hour days, with no overtime pay, I guess that just so long as the work is not coerced or illegal I have no problem with it.

        I worked in the Intellectual Property department, but I knew people all over the factory site, ordinary workers included, and regularly visited the factory floor.

  • Kerry

    My friend from Beijing told me that, sadly, human life is “worth the least” in China. They have so many people, it doesn’t really matter if a few die off. Even as a foreigner with relatives in China, I felt completely helpless in the face of state bureacracy and the “Chinese style of doing things”. I can only imagine what these poor iPhone workers have to go through…

  • http://www.lovelovechina.com Crystal

    So… number 14 & 15 unconfirmed now?

  • faeyth

    Chinese Workers deserve more pay.And the more pay they get the more they will be able to spend building a domestic market and improving living standards and Service economy.Multinational Corporations can afford it plus they will stay because they want Chinese Consumers.That crap about them moving production is a lie,they will stay to sell to Asian market just like they did in S.Korea,Malaysia,Japan,etc…When wages increased it wasn’t the end of those countries in fact quite the opposite,it was the beginning just like Europe and North America.Just the super rich receive less but they already have more than they can spend anyway.Greedy Bastards.

  • Steven

    Like I said, get some automatic weapons and storm government buildings. It’s the only way.

  • 练练英语

    i have to admit that i like the girl in the first picture.i tell you a real story which happened in 2003 in shenzhen at that time i was a worker in a small clothe factory.i heard a big noise while i was sewing something.i ran down to the street and ran into a procession of thousands of nearby factory’s labor workers.they shouted,”raise my payment,improve the working conditions”.some picked bricks and stones,threw them at the riot policemen.but the policemen could defended against the stone rain very well by using the shields.the protesters wanted to enter shenzhen “city” through the nantou checkpoint.if these angry laborers broke into shenzhen “city”,the situation would deteriorated and the “harmonious” shenzhen would be plunged into chaos.at that critical moment,the police used the water cannons to successfully droved off the demonstrators.the “raise my payment” banners were torn up and stamped.the local union kept silent.

    • Kawaii

      yes, 练练英语, I agree with you on your first statement.
      not sure if i could follow you with the rest. perhaps i’m just a bit thick.

    • http://www.foarp.blogspot.com FOARP

      I saw the same thing in 2007, but never at Foxconn.

      • Zhegezhege

        Actually, this kind of shit is not uncommon at all. During periods spent in China, I’ve seen several outright political demonstrations, a fuckload of public order disturbances which usually end in vicious beat-downs if a face-saving comprimise isn’t found fast and there are always some very interesting banners and t-shirts at music festivals (and always some out of place looking goons staring at the kids).

  • musementride

    I think that this a step in the right direction. Even if its a small step, the Chinese workers need to be paid more money and I believe over the next decade, this issue will become more and more mainstream to the point that these over-worked workers finally get some honestly deserved pay.

    • Joe

      I’m not trying to argue about paying them more money, everyone wants a better life and money unfortunately is a part of that, but think of this. Manufacturing will leave when costs get too high. We all know this. Most if not all will go to another country where costs and wages are lower. So when there companies move to other factories in other countries will you also say that those workers need to be paid more? It’s are hard thing to chew, but, if they these employees didn’t want to work there they don’t have too. It maybe a hard choice. Now where to go, no job, etc.. But they do have a choice. What about the people you don’t hear about who work harder than the Foxconn workers and get less money. It’s just the way of life in countries that manufacture the world’s goods. It’s a sad fact. If pursuing the perfect life people don’t want to take the lower paying/less skillful jobs, those jobs have to be outsourced or the wages raised. Raise the wages and the cost of the products go up, outsource and survive a little longer until you have to move production again or end up raising the cost of the product. Just the way it is. Can’t do anything about that. Everyone and I mean everyone wants to save money and buy cheap products and or services. It’s the name of the game.

      • steven

        Yeah I totally understand what you’re saying. I think it’s really, really wrong, but we in the west also created this situation. Think about it, if they were given western salaries would we still buy the goods they produced? Of course not, because we’d think they were far too expensive.

        But for a lot of these people it’s a choice between this, and substinance farming. They grew up in the country they have no concept of what the real world is like, all they know is the propaganda that has been taught to them in school about how evil America is and so on. This is them basically entering the real world. It’s also another reason why these factories have such high turnovers.

        • Joe

          Agreed. All the time I get asked how America is. I haven’t been back for a bit, but, I can say being fairly positive, Not good. Most Chinese have no idea that even if they moved to America they wouldn’t have any money. But alas, that’s another topic. As far as this problem. There is no fixing it. Let’s say that everything stayed produced in America, well, then we can only speculate what would of happened. Maybe innovation would be limited to labs. Consumers wouldn’t be able to buy say an Iphone, because it costs too much. The costs of goods would be too high for the market to bear. But really, I have not a clue. Who knows. Probably boils down to social problems, the one child policy, being alone, your family getting money if you die, copycats, underdeveloped social skills, etc. I’m not one to say exactly.

          Also agree. Most have no idea what the world really is. Access to internet in the country maybe limited and or affording a computer could be an issue. Entering the real world in China happens after college. If they got to go to college. Their whole life they study alone, play alone, etc. They always have a goal in school, pass the test, pass the test. They get out of college and have no test, no homework, no way to cheat or copy (not saying the majority does that), no goal, have no friends but the ones they may of made. Everyone leaves to different cities. It’s much like little kids that are developing social skills. Easily persuaded, manipulated, etc. It’s all about education and social skills. No one is ever kind to them. It’s dog eat dog. Sink or swim. Pressure from parents, society, etc. At some point they can’t bear it. Hell. They are being pressured to buy houses that Americans can’t afford, in the cities at least. How are they to do that on these salaries? You got me, but it only adds to the pressure.

          In the end this story has only gotten the attention of the world because of the company that is involved, who it supplies and so on. There are many more travesties in China that are I’m sure worse than this but go under the radar. It’s just going to continue to happen no matter what anyone does or says.
          I wouldn’t say that this is a Foxconn problem 100% but a society problem also. Foxconn is becoming the western perceived scape goat. Not that they don’t do the most noble of things, but they do employ 400,000 people, contribute taxes, etc.

    • Joe

      Opps. Little error. “So when there companies move to other factories in other countries will you also say that those workers need to be paid more?” Sounds weird. Should probably be, “So when their clients move to other factories in different countries, will you also say that those workers need to be paid more?”

  • cdn icehole

    I never understood why some people who commit suicide do not take someone that they don’t like with them. These Foxconn employees that committed suicide should have stormed the executive offices and take out the most hated manager(s) or co-workers. There’s plenty of incidents in the US where a disgruntled employee goes in with their automatic rifle and BANG! take out the most hated co-workers and then turn the gun to themselves.

    Personally, I wouldn’t be able to turn the gun to myself. I’d hole up and wait for the inevitable fire fight with the PoPo.

    • Kawaii

      Obviously no guns in china… its not so easy as in the US!
      They can use knives tho.

      In any case, a worker depressed, is not a worker in the mood to kill somebody…
      They are depressed about their conditions, they don’t really have one enemy in mind to kill.

    • Pong Lenis

      If you would have investigated a little and not just read the headlines then you would know that nearly all suicides are related to personal or family problems and that the factory has nothing to do with it. They have nothing to do with work conditions, which are very good in Foxconn compared to other factories.

      • cdn icehole

        If your sources are Chinese then there’s no way I can find that info and I can’t read Chinese.

        In any case, my point is if you are going to commit suicide you might as well take someone that you don’t like with you.

        • steven

          Yeah take Steve Jobs with you he’s a fucking nazi.

  • FYIADragoon

    Whoa, who are those cutie pies in the last pic?

    • bai ren

      they are average girls who feel sick to their stomach. food poisoning suck balls, and gfs certainly cannot perform as cuties when they have it or are worrying about their friend who have it

  • bai ren

    in another article i read about the facilities focxxcomm provides it worker including a net bar. while net bars make for cheap entertainment \I wonder about the restrictions and possible connection speeds there. FOXCOMM NETIZENS SPEAK UP. however many migrant workers who do not live in their company compounds do not have the same sports facitilities and only have cheap internet as a source of after work entertainment. also i would love to learn more details on the food poisoning cause the facilities look better than an average clinic. yea the patients are not on beds which they could be but the chairs are not so terrible. working as a migrant sucks, foxcomm is an institutionalized example of this suckiness which strikes NAers at home cause they make our stuff. lets hope foxcomm proves as a model wioth the wage increse and sends it across the board, no more cheap wal-mart stuff their maunfaction employees commit suicide from alienation which makes us feel bad during meals. up with pleasure gaminging!!!

  • Hongjian

    [quote]The difference between labor camps and Foxconn is: At a labor camp, just because you want to leave, you can, while at Foxconn, if you don’t want to work anymore, you can simply leave. [/quote]

    dunno, maybe this guy is some paid foxconn propagandist, but if the imformation known is indicating anything, is that foxconn workers just CANNOT simply ‘leave’ or ‘quit’ as they wish.

    seriously. if anyone read more about what the workers at foxconn have to say about their everyday experience, is that it is exactly like a labour camp, or more like in the PLA, where hardcore drill-instructors are beating the crap out of you for speaking with your neighbor while working.

    • steven

      Steve Jobs says it’s not a sweatshop and I believe him. I mean they have a wonderful life, cinema’s，swimming pools, shopping malls. What more does a person need?

  • b

    According to wikipedia, minimum wage in Shenzhen is 1000 RMB/month so an increase was in order. I do believe however that the suicides are due to the nature of the work – production line factory work, day in, day out for the rest of their lives. There is nothing to live for and no motivation to go on and life loses all meaning. I have read that the suicide rates at foxconn are no worse than in the general population and in fact better than most other factories. There is probably no reasonable (economically) measure that the company could have taken to prevent the suicides to date and I’m doubtful that it will help the situation until it is clear what the suicides are protesting.

  • Professor Sillypants

    Kudos to Foxconn for doing something that was completely unnecessary – they didn’t cause people to commit suicide. I hope they thrive!

    Maybe some good will come out of this: a set of laws governing factory workers and employers, perhaps? Pardon me? These laws already exist? I meant enforced, then.

  • Iwa

    How con you call the dead people idiots? Can’t you respect the past lives? Cruel heartless Fauna!

    Despising you!

    • Fauna

      I did not call the dead people idiots.

      • Iwa

        OK.i have found that linK from KDS. Sorry, you had just translated the original messages from the shameful guy. Sorry for my rudeness.

  • fuck off

    why are they idiots? have YOU been in that situation, you compassion-less cunt? i imagine they had very little options for seeking another job. it’s not that simple in china. what sort of company employs such young people and make them work such long hours for such little pay, so that they have to LIVE in the factory? clearly the fascist, imperialistic slave-driver kind. you people disgust me. please do the world a favour and choke on your fucking iphone.

  • http://heartseamonkeys.blogspot.com/ Mel

    What a horrific tragedy. So sad that the Chinese are forced to feed America’s mindless consumerism. At least we are aware of it now thanks to one theater actor: http://mikedaisey.blogspot.com/

    http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-agony-and-the-ecstasy-of-steve-jobs-mike-daisey-goes-to-china-so-you-can-change-the-world/Content?oid=4639306

  • Pingback: Foxconn Factory to Create 1m New Jobs, Indonesian Reactions – indoBOOM

  • jenny

    why does your profile picture makes me hate you so much?
    and, i agree, 20% raise is bad-ass!!! it is 20%!!
    and facilities at foxconn are nice – the true reason is what exactly agaiN>?

  • Lily

    Are you being sarcastic? I can’t tell anymore.

  • Cardaver

    I strongly ding you with all my might for posting something aside from the word ‘first’

  • SLX

    Who’d care about English teacher wages?
    At least I’d like to see some suicide video on the net first.

  • Frank

    sure, please go get some of your english friends to start jumping down from building, maybe, just maybe we will talk about the english teacher wages…

  • aquadraht

    I suggest you jump from your flat’s building roof. If you find other 10 or twenty English teachers joining you, we surely will discuss the issue. Good jump.

  • macdonalds

    english teachers should be paid macdonalds wages. they only come to china because they would be flipping burgers in america

  • eattot

    maybe this time is all right!

  • http://www.counterfeitchic.com/Images/Mao_Jordan_cropped.jpg Alikese

    Unions are not needed in this Socialist workers’ paradise.

  • aquadraht

    Well, founding a union branch in a shop is easy in China, only they require it to become a branch of 中华全国总工会. That’s why it can’t be UAW. They want the trade unions being controlled by the CCP, not the CIA.

  • http://www.counterfeitchic.com/Images/Mao_Jordan_cropped.jpg Alikese

    Is that a horse riding helmet, or more Patton-esque?

  • JJ

    I think most Chinese aren’t offended by the articles themselves (why should they be?), but rather by the sometimes truly ignorant and racist comments that the articles tend to bring out from people (who are, let’s face it, usually non-Chinese). At least that’s certainly true in my case.

  • bai ren

    yea, mr wang and cough pusan paler are really negitive about the original posters and try to support the best actions of th government.
    however i usually find the pro gov posts to be lower down and in conversation with the foreigner posts rather than as a response to the intrinsic emphasis pf the post.
    keeping this in mind and reading the posts beforehand I think you are a tad early with such a comment and should be called a bitch rather than dinged up however much hyou might be right
    what trolling is done by the pro govs we will see if pp finds his name here through a key word search of the article.

  • Zhegezhege

    “Ionlywantedto teeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaachhhhhhhhhhhhhh!”

    But come on Uber, English teachers with a year or two experience of China (and who know how to tell their Chinese employers what they want to hear, while making sure to be seen that they are negotiating from a position of strength) can make upwards of 15,000 a month, no problem. There are the international school teachers who can double that, but 15k will take care of you in BJ/Shanghai and you can pretty much live as king of the jungle on that salary anywhere else on the mainland!

  • cdn icehole

    Unions are not needed anywhere.

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buns Bakery

    No objections to the ‘paradise’ part?

  • bai ren

    a chinese cowoker who gets paid p=by the student is making 40 000 a month rmb. no shit.
    the problem comparing engloi8sh teacher and factory workers in the tech industry is the value of their labour to the immediate deamnds of their community. nglish is a hard skill to come by (apparently) whilely tech manufaction is a no-low skill job. neoliberalism’ meritocrasy at work.
    \Do I agree that this is good f no. but this is the way the market valuesplay out.

  • bai ren

    these wages are not based upon their market value as such, they are based upon fair market rade. In China the ‘fair trade’ for low skill manufactory labour is 700 a mounth plus expences, and 900 plus expenses if in the media. I agree with the chinese comenter, foxxcom does provide a better than average migrant labour enviroment. HOWever what is missing is that \China’s labour populations’ values are changing.
    shit 200 now because of suisides, what about 500 plus in the future because the so called unlimited supply of labour turns out to be a dry well? what if we in the west begin top feel the rich/poor divide that china knows only too well and the average m\class person can nolonger expect to be able to affor the latest iphone?
    btw, your pic doesnt make you a hater, it only makes you more sexy for the 五毛ers out there in the world.. whatever side we might be on ;)

  • bai ren

    the negative side to neoliberalism being made to cough up by PR? shizam, freud’s nefew bernes must be rolling in his grave 无毛党！！！！
    and no this isnt a kedafu accident

  • Zhegezhege

    Frank, you fool. SLX already made that joke. And I paid tribute to it in my first post. Don’t you have some exams to prepare for?

    Guobao, you are kidding yourself; a quick glance at the website of the Prophet of ESL Teachers, Dave Sperling, will show you that. If you’re good at the job and your bosses like you, you always get more, because the bosses can afford to pay it.

    And bairen, you aren’t impressing anyone with your pop economics terminology. Yeah, I know Chinese people (and laowais) who organise their own classes and take cash in hand. The better money seems to be in classes of young kids, if you can handle them. You can get, say, 70RMB per kid per hour and cram them in to a room and teach them all at once; the only limitation is how many kids you can cram in to a room.

    And that’s why I don’t think many of them are clearing 40k per month. That means you need to take 10k cash, per week, from the public. At 70RMB/hr that’s 142 student hours per week. There are many limitations on getting that much. Assuming you get an average of 3 hours per kid at your training centre, that’s 47 parents you need to convince to give you 210RMB per week in a market full of English teaching services. That is not easy, especially if you’re on your own. And more difficult if you were to say “ACTUALLY I work for 100RMB per hour”, to try to bring the workload down. So unless you’re connected to someone who knows a lot of people with young kids to refer to you to give you a head start and the all-important trust factor, you’re going to have a lot of hard work (years, maybe) building up your name to that level. Maybe you have a lot of ex students you know from an institution which can help you out, but just because you got on well before doesn’t mean they’re going to want to pay you cash in hand.

    Then you have the issues that eat at your profits; where do you do this teaching? Your house is a bit unimpressive (why not give the money to a ‘proper school’?) and if you have an office, there’s rent. Do you do all the organisation yourself (more work) or do you hire a secretary (more fees)? Scheduling? If the kids are at school or university all day, how many hours a week can you fit in? You mention “Chinese coworkers” but we all know that the primary concern of many (if not most) parents is that the teacher is foreign. It’s not just the English that they’re paying for. And, a huge part of this: maintaining and potentially increasing your customer base; meeting people takes time, advertising isn’t free and doesn’t always work how you hoped. AND if you do all of this successfully what about class preparation? If you’re going in there and winging it all the time, the kids will know, they’ll tell their parents and the parents will try someone else.

    So, yeah there probably are some clever Chinese who speak excellent English, are great teachers and live eat and sleep their job (and possibly had a bit of help) – and they and only they are clearing 40k. They are exceptional cases, a very small number indeed, and they definitely won’t have the free time to enjoy it! Plenty of people would – and do – take a third of that for a third of the work. Your statement about Chinese coworkers (I think you mean ‘self-employed equivalents’) is too general and implies that this sort of thing is common. It clearly isn’t and you must know that the average Chinese English teacher in China isn’t making that much money – and doesn’t speak English that well, either!

  • http://chinadivide.com Kai

    He wears it only while he’s procreating.

  • http://chinadivide.com Kai

    Without anyone actually doing some real statistical analysis of the tens of thousands of comments on here, but having been on this site since its early days, my gut tells me that the majority of the comments here aren’t neutral. While I won’t say the “vast majority” are racist, I definitely think there is a lot of general negativity…which is just like the Chinese internet.

  • Teacher in China

    I gotta agree with Kai on this one. Even in the early days, the bi-assed (see what I did there? clever eh?) comments outweighed the neutral ones, and that situation has only gotten worser and worsterester.

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buns Bakery

    @Matthew A Sawtell:
    This is completely unrelated, but I clicked on your link, and now I’m really having a hard time deciding if I prefer Smiling Matthew or Serial-Killer Matthew. I’m leaning towards the latter.

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buns Bakery

    Crack? I was just wondering why you picked out ‘socialist’ for questioning and not ‘paradise’.
    Also, aren’t you worried about identity theft? I mean, for a guy with 60+ years experience in IT…

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buns Bakery

    Don’t get me wrong, I agree with you.
    And as long as you’re not worried, I’m not worried. In fact, it gives me comfort knowing that if I ever go to the US I have the address of a friend to stay with for an indefinite period of time. And since everyone on ChinaSmack has access to your address maybe we can organise a CS box social hosted by you? Wouldn’t that be great? You could serve baozi ZOMGROFL!
    By the way, I love your use of clipart in your thesis. As for the words, waaay too many. I didn’t even get past the first sentence.

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buns Bakery

    I only meant that there are too many words to make it a coffee table book. For a thesis the number of words seems appropriate; I didn’t count them, but in my experience theses generally have a shitload of them, and yours certainly has that, so if it didn’t get an A+ you probably didn’t sleep with the right people.
    As far as understanding the art goes, I understand that when that little clipart stick figure guy is scratching his head it means he is confused, and when there is a light bulb above him it means he’s had an idea. Correct me if I’m wrong.

  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buns Bakery

    2D wireframe models with edges hidden from view projected by dotted lines kick ass. And the pie charts made me hungry.

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