Chinese Factory Workers and Wages

China is the world’s biggest factory. Anything from medicines to automobile parts are manufactured there. Nations from all over the world import from China. Retail giants, wholesalers, entrepreneurs-China is open to everyone when it comes to trade. The demand for goods from China has taken such vast proportions that the country simply puts up more and more factories in order to meet this demand.

Which, in effect, keeps millions of people employed. These people come from the rural parts of the country. They swarm all over the factories, in the hopes of landing a place in the facilities and earning more than what they make as farmers. Once they get in, however, they cease to be as ecstatic about their job as they were before. What can be the reason behind this? They finally get what they want, so why the change of heart?

Chinese factories produce numerous products for export

Let’s say you walk into a furniture factory. You see the products: tables, couches, dressers, chairs, cabinets-all very nice and fancy looking, and all slated for import to countries such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, etc. You venture further into the facility. You finally get to the part where the workers are hard at work.

You see unpainted tables being sprayed -you take a minute to ask-benzene. Benzene. You cudgel your brain for information about benzene; it sounds familiar. Wait, isn’t that supposed to be cancer-causing? Isn’t it considered as a carcinogen that may result in leukemia due to long-term exposure to it? You stare in horror at the bare unprotected faces of the workers as they stoically go on spraying.

Apparently, this scenario is common in various factories in China. It doesn’t matter what sort of goods they manufacture; exposure to carcinogens such as benzene is accepted in a matter of fact way as a standard component in the lives of these factory workers.

The horror doesn’t stop there; long grueling hours of work, cramped sleeping quarters, minimal wage… but these are the least of their worries. What they really have to fear is the very possible occurrence of amputated fingers, being diagnosed with silicosis, lead poisoning… What is sad is that, even if these people are aware of how they are most likely going to end up, they still trudge on with their jobs-all for a meager wage that is more than what they previously earned as farmers or unskilled laborers.

Cheap labor-this is one of the main reasons why the whole world is grappling for a piece of China’s imports. But why is labor cheap? Granted, because there are so many people there, and these people need jobs. But also because the factory machines are quite behind the times, and most likely need to be worked manually. And because safety measures aren’t taken, since protective equipments are expensive. So how can this situation be remedied? Have China overhaul the factories, upgrade the equipments, improve the workers’ salary and assure them of their safety. The workers’ state of being improves, prices go up, and the world moves on to another source of cheap imports.