Amid China’s struggles with excess manufacturing of various products, workers at a domestic auto plant are confronted with a tough decision regarding their employment.
According to a Tuesday interview with Nikkei, Lisa, a factory worker at the Li Auto Factory and a newlywed bride, stated that over 1,000 employees, including herself, were presented with the option to either resign or accept minimum wage until business conditions pick up.
The 27-year-old worker further noted: “We were told that our pure electric vehicle sales are weak due to the bad conditions, so the company has to cut production.” Speaking on the condition of anonymity, Lisa said if she fails to find another job, she will be “starving to death.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minimum_wage_in_China
Looks like the lowest as of 2023 equates to about 1.79 USD an hour?
That sounds crazy low, but I also wonder what the spending power is there? I mean, if you take $7/hr in the US and put that in San Francisco, you’re gonna have a rough time, but lots of places that’s uncomfortable but not starving, you know?
Just from context and reports about conditions of poor Chinese people, I imagine it’s worse than our $7 in a rural area, but I don’t feel like I can get a clear idea of what that means to a person living there beyond “that’s really poor.”