How Much Do Chinese Electronic Factory Workers Make

Last week, we visited a large mobile phone manufacturer in China that produces affordable phones for markets in Southeast Asia and Africa.

The China mobile phone factory has a large pool of young millennial working nonstop in the assembly line. Most of them age from 18 to 28 as 18 is a minimum age to work by law while 28 is a preferred maximum age by the factory for workers in the assembly line. Before the factory used to set strict regulations on age and sex ratio should be kept around 1:1, with labor shortages in recent years these rules are collapsing.

Xiaohua, who has been working here for over two years, told us that the same like other electronic factories in Shenzhen, they work two shifts, one month day shift and the other night shift. For night shift, an allowance of around $1.5 per night would be given, the base salary is the minimum salary of Shenzhen about $323 per month, and $2.6 per hour for overtime.

According to Xiaohua, in average they work overtime for two hours per day, the monthly food allowance is $19, and they can get around $588 per month excluding taxes and other costs.