It was recently reported that Apple Inc. has teamed up with Foxconn, the Chinese supplier of iPhone and iPad devices, to improve the labor conditions in its manufacturing facilities. Foxconn is also investing $210 million into building a new production line in Huai’an City, China. Foxconn plants, known for various questionable practices including employing underage workers, and underpaying and likewise overcharging workers to live in on-site dorms, prompting strikes and mass-suicidal behavior. Though, it’s been reported that Foxconn workers might be getting a substantial raise next year.
Foxconn is allegedly planning to double its Chinese factory workers’ salaries by 2013, according to a Chinese newspaper, via M.I.C Gadget. Factory workers presently make roughly $346 a month at Foxconn, and the reported raise would bump up wages to $693 a month, a 100% increase. The aforementioned suicides at the Foxconn compounds prompted the company to raise wages in the past – nearly doubling salaries in 2010 to $315. Workers had been previously paid $141 a month.
The speculation regarding the raise is based on words apparently coming from Foxconn’s CEO during its Shanghai headquarters groundbreaking ceremony. The raise would be great for the migrant laborers at the Foxconn plants, and would affect competing businesses, likely prompting them to add more incentives to retain their own work force.