Foxconn Offers Big Bonuses to Recruit Workers Ahead of Lunar New Year Holiday

[MacRumors]

Apple's largest manufacturing partner Foxconn is again offering bumper signing bonuses to new and former workers in an effort to boost recruitment at its Zhengzhou campus, one of its main iPhone factories in China, according to the South China Morning Post.

The report claims Foxconn is giving returning workers a signing bonus of 9,500 yuan ($1,470), in addition to a monthly income of 6,865 yuan ($1,080), at its sprawling production park, which employs more than a quarter of a million workers and produces an estimated 80% of the world's iPhones.

The Taiwan company has also promised an 8,500 yuan ($1,338) reward for new recruits hired through its internal referral program, as well as 1,000 yuan ($157) for the corresponding referrer. New joiners who applied on their own are being offered a 9,000 yuan ($1,417) bonus.

The same bonus package was previously offered in July, when the factory was ramping up production of the iPhone 13 series. On that occasion, the amount was in fact an increase on a record-high signing bonus Foxconn began offering the previous month.

The increased incentives indicate Foxconn's need for experienced workers ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which runs from January 31 to February 6, when migrant workers across China typically return home to be with their families.

The run-up to the holiday is also being impacted by a recent surge in Omicron and Delta coronavirus cases in Henan province, where authorities have put restrictions on people entering and leaving the region. In Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan, Foxconn's production lines are said to be located in low-risk zones for infections, but the company is taking no chances and continues to conduct multiple rounds of testing on its workers.

Global demand for the iPhone 13 has remained steady going into 2022, having outstripped supply in the fourth quarter of last year by around 12 million units, with Apple selling 40 million iPhone 13 models over the holiday season, according to Wedbush analysts.

Article Link: Foxconn Offers Big Bonuses to Recruit Workers Ahead of Lunar New Year Holiday

 

[now i see it]

“monthly income of 6,865 yuan ($1,080)”

I’ll let you do the math.

 

[Michael Scrip]

“monthly income of 6,865 yuan ($1,080)”

I’ll let you do the math.

That pay is very low. Tragically low.

And yet... 250,000 people work at that production facility.

I wonder why that is?

Look... I wish these factory workers would be paid more. But if there were better-paying jobs around... wouldn't people work there instead?

We've been hearing about "low wage Chinese factory jobs" for years. And yet it still persists.

I don't know what the solution is.

 

[Bug-Creator]

I’ll let you do the math.

I get: "Significantly more then most people in most parts of the world make"
I also get: "Pretty close to minimum wage in some of the richest nations on the globe"

Enough for an A+ with extra stars?

 

[Aluminum213]

I hear they give free nets as bonuses, I wonder what that means?

 

[apparatchik]

I get: "Significantly more then most people in most parts of the world make"
I also get: "Pretty close to minimum wage in some of the richest nations on the globe"

Enough for an A+ with extra stars?

Yeah, in any case it’s a testament of how much salaries have improved in China overtime, as they start reaching minimum wage in the US & Western Europe, far from the 200-300 dls a month of 10 years ago.

 

[lixuelai]

Need to adjust for the cost of living as well (big mac index etc). You can roughly use a 2:1 exchange to estimate the quality of life. Either way labor cost is peanuts in the overall cost.

 

[tridley68]

Bonus a extra .17cents if you stay on after 30days

 

[TechRunner]

I can't imagine working in a place with suicide netting on the buildings. I'm not familiar with the Chinese economy, but apparently jobs must be hard to come by, or these are considered decent jobs, or both.

 

[Bug-Creator]

I can't imagine working in a place with suicide netting on the buildings.

Same could be said about many things that are considered normal in other parts of the world.

The reality is that Foxconn pays good money (for Chinese workers with limited qualifications) but also puts a lot of stress on these workers which in the past lead to some of them jumping of roofs. Elsewhere it leads to getting hooked up to prescription drugs or testing 2A at the workplace.

-> not a place I wanted to work, but if I was a Chinese farm boy with limited options I might have taken up the offer for a few years.

 

[minimo3]

It’s interesting how seemingly educated folks have zero knowledge of cost of living / purchasing power parity. I don’t hear them saying “a retail worker makes $20/hour in Manhattan, we are only getting paid $12/hour in our 500 person town in ____ Wyoming, outrage!”

 

[H. Flower]

It’s interesting how seemingly educated folks have zero knowledge of cost of living / purchasing power parity. I don’t hear them saying “a retail worker makes $20/hour in Manhattan, we are only getting paid $12/hour in our 500 person town in ____ Wyoming, outrage!”

Yep. Foxconn’s wages in China are low, but relative to the cost of living and purchasing power of their country, not “slave” wages, which is often claimed. People are comparing apples and oranges.

 

[Jetscreamer]

Keep in mind the vast majority of their workers are from the back country, where people have no skill or higher education. That monthly rate must be very attractive for someone coming from a rural community.