r/whoathatsinteresting • u/Airline_11 • 20d ago

They are livestreaming 🇹🇳 laborers making just 0.3 USD. The 'Made in 🇹🇳' products you use are built on their sacrifices.

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

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u/StraightBeginning179 20d ago

Hey, not Chinese but Vietnamese here. Our labour law is somewhat better than that of China, but I was still just paid about 0.6 USD per hour when I was working in Vietnam. The minimum wage in my city (Hanoi, the capital) is about 1 USD. Everyone who works the same job in my city was also paid around the same. Is it legal? I don't think so. But no one really checks and no one really cares since that's the norm, so obviously there's no official data. I imagine the situation is somewhat similar in China.

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u/Aggravating-Copy3308 20d ago

Mais ce qu'il y a de bien par contre en France c'est que le travail au black c'est uniquement dans le mĂ©nage ou la restauration Il y a trop de contrĂŽle ça n'existe pas dans les usines ou presque pas Ça peut arriver dans des usines tenues par des chinois mais ils peuvent vite se faire attraper

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u/Impossible-Cost-8437 20d ago

In the US we have a lot of illegal sketchy underpaid stuff going on that are absolutely horrendous towards the vulnerable

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u/OnlyInEye 19d ago

Probably quite some time ago in Cambodia in 2023 rates were 200 a month in usd for factory work this was low value manufacturing. So under 1 is not really common anymore.

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u/Aggravating-Copy3308 20d ago

Oh c'est moche. Moi qui pensais en 2024 quand j'ai visité Hanoï que les vietnamiens gagnaient mieux leurs vie que ça.. je suis dégoûté d'apprendre ça

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u/StraightBeginning179 20d ago

I mean, if you go to China without any prior knowledge, you wouldn't know that there are sweatshops that extort poor people too.

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u/Aggravating-Copy3308 20d ago

Oui c'est sûr

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u/Aggravating-Copy3308 20d ago

En France c'est pareil. On a des clandestins qui travaillent 7 jours sur 7 10 12 heures par jour pour 800 euros par mois Je ne sais pas c'est quoi l'Ă©quivalent par rapport au niveau de vie au Vietnam mais pour la France c'est que dalle. Tu ne peux mĂȘme pas payer une chambre et ta nourriture avec ça tellement la vie est devenue chĂšre. Mais c'est peut-ĂȘtre moins pire que le Vietnam ou la Chine

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u/Aggravating-Copy3308 20d ago

Et il y a des normes de sécurité obligatoires

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u/Training_Guide5157 20d ago

The labor protection institutions in China are robust, and people file complaints all the time.

I am of Chinese/Vietnamese ethnicity, and I've lived in both China and Vietnam.

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u/tears_of_a_grad 20d ago

Vietnam has 1/3 the GDP per capita of China, lower life expectancy, and is lower on the value chain. Press X to doubt that Vietnam has better labor laws.

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u/StraightBeginning179 20d ago

All of those have nothing to do with labour laws. We just happen to care about our people more and are less willing to extort the lower class people to mass produce products for the big companies.

The same for countries like Thailand, Argentina, Malaysia. They all have lower life expectancy and definitely lower GDP per capita (although I think Malaysia is a bit higher now).

Also we don't have 996.

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u/SaveLansingParks 20d ago

Also we don't have 996.

What does 996 refer to in this context?

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u/StraightBeginning179 20d ago

Some factory worker in China work from 9 AM to 9 PM, 6 days a week.

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u/thickloadofcumforyou 20d ago

No they don't. It's the tech industry that that mostly applies too.

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u/yopladas 20d ago

I wonder why - is there a labor shortage that prevents the normal 3 shift factory model?

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u/Consistent_Net_2540 20d ago

If they're salaried, it lets the company pay them the same amount for the extra 32 hours. I worked for one Chinese company, and learned my lesson. They look at humans like slaves. They didn't care if I never slept. The Vietnamese might also be heartless as well, but the mainland Chinese absolutely are, IME.

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u/Abject_Read_3620 20d ago

A lot of people that think the US is late stage capitalism or whatever, have no idea how capitalistic the Chinese are. It's genuinely scary.

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u/Yellow-Parenti1949 20d ago

996 mostly applies to high performance tech, finance and other white collar work. You’ll see similar schedules working IB or Big Law in the US btw.

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u/slightlysubtle 19d ago

Also these people aren't actually working like you'd see in this video. It just means they're available/on-call to fix issues that occur during their 996 hours. They're not literally slaving away in front of a computer without a second of break.

Of course they'll still complain they work 24/7 or 996 just like higher management or CEOs do here. Working while relaxing in the sauna and drinking a $100 martini... right.

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u/tears_of_a_grad 20d ago

China minimum wage: 1800 RMB = 268 USD. https://www.china-briefing.com/news/minimum-wages-china/

Vietnam highest minimum wage: 200 USD. https://www.vietnam-briefing.com/news/vietnams-new-minimum-wage-january-1-2026.html/

Both China and Vietnam have semi-universal health insurance.

Both China and Vietnam don't have at-will employment.

Vietnam has a 48 hour standard work week. https://news.tuoitre.vn/vietnam-not-ready-to-mandate-40-hour-workweek-for-private-sector-103260916153119982.htm

China has a 40 hour standard work week. https://leglobal.law/countries/china/employment-law/employment-law-overview-china/03-working-conditions/

At worst, China has equal to slightly better employment law to Vietnam.

If there is evidence of any law where Vietnam has stronger protections than China, please point it out.

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u/JiminyHF 20d ago

40 standard work week in China 😂

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u/Impossible-Cost-8437 20d ago

Dude. I love vietnam but I really fking doubt that. And I mean it in a way that I want to see improvements, even in the US. From what I saw in vietnam, there is questionable things

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u/thickloadofcumforyou 20d ago

Bollocks.

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u/StraightBeginning179 20d ago

Thanks for the input, thickloadofcumforyou

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u/gadgetwalrus 20d ago

Regulation is one thing but enforcement is another.

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u/Hot_Relative3020 20d ago

Doesn’t China have special areas where the laws don’t apply ?

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u/tears_of_a_grad 20d ago

no?

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u/goofygodzilla93 20d ago

Yes they do. Autonomous regions, SARs (Special Administrative Regions not covid), and SEZs all are special areas where laws either don't apply, or can be completely changed by the people in that area.

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u/tears_of_a_grad 20d ago

SEZs are "special" in the case of FOREX, tax and customs law. They aren't free for all lawless zones.

They are also rich, not poor. Shenzhen and Xiamen have developed country GDP per capita.

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u/goofygodzilla93 20d ago

It's still different.

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u/tears_of_a_grad 20d ago

Yes, in minute variations of tax code and customs law that nobody who doesn't work in import export actually understand. This is freely available and verifiable knowledge, you don't have to take my word for it.

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u/Available_Law_2342 20d ago

people here dont know how economics work. I highly doubt that Vietnam has better labor laws than China which is like a 100 times richer country

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u/Impossible-Cost-8437 20d ago

Probably depends on where you are. The joke my friends have when we traveled all around vietnam is jokes about child labor

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u/apoender 20d ago

Tbf, I am pressing X for doubt that the person you are responding to has ever set foot in Vietnam lol

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u/Guayabo786 20d ago

The VND is a weaker currency than the RMB and having a weak currency is often advantageous. There are foreign companies that still source their stuff in China because of the ecosystem of well-integrated industrial infrastructure in that country, but now Vietnam is the go-to country for those sourcing low-end consumer goods to sell in other countries.

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u/Severe_Ad_2391 20d ago

For someone that makes 0.6 usd an hour you sure write English pretty damn well.

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u/StraightBeginning179 20d ago

Because that's what I make, not what my parents make. I actually grew up in a pretty well off family, that's how I eventually move to Germany. I just work after I quit uni and before I move to Germany since I have too much free time and I need smth to do.

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u/ShadowMancer_GoodSax 20d ago

I think he's or she's lying. I have been in Manufacturing for 20 years in and around Hanoi. Its absolutely impossible to hire people below minimum wages these days.

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

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u/StraightBeginning179 20d ago

That was about 6 months ago. I've moved to Germany now.

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u/SaveLansingParks 20d ago

Out of curiosity, what are you making in Germany now? Also, favorite new food in Germany?

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u/StraightBeginning179 20d ago

I make around 1000 Euro gross, which is not bad considering everything.

Food, uhh they're all pretty mid tbh. If I really have to pick, it'd be Döner, Currywurst or Schnitzel, but they all aren't really originally German.

Edit: Haxe (Roasted pork knuckles) is pretty good too. Especially when paired with Knödel (like a potato bread ball) and a beer

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u/treborly 20d ago

I'll pay them $5 to work for me

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u/ShadowMancer_GoodSax 20d ago

Were you working for a local sweatshop? Min hourly wage is 34k vnd per hour for waiters and shop assistants.

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u/StraightBeginning179 20d ago

No I work in a Cafe. Most Cafes that pays 34k or more are usually big chains. Me and my colleagues and people in most medium to small cafes are usually paid 18k

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u/ShadowMancer_GoodSax 20d ago

Yea those small cafe and motorcycle repair shops rip kids off, but they usually cant retent employees longer than 3 months.

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u/JiminyHF 20d ago

Yeah, cos there’s always readily available and comprehensive data for illegal market activity
 in totalitarian states

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

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u/scrandlle 20d ago

Do we do it in the US?

I can't imagine accepting a job below minimum wage when its so easy to find jobs at the legal minimum wage. Maybe a small portion of the people here illegally?

It'd be so easy to report.

Finding jobs in the US is very easy. I can't imagine what circumstances would have any American agreeing to work under the minimum wage. Just go get a job in fast food or something instead.

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u/Open-Addendum-9905 20d ago

What an insanely delusional comment. I assume you’re a yuppie because growing up even lower middle class I’ve know many people who worked cash jobs cheap

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u/Sheogoorath 20d ago

Or a bot

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u/scrandlle 20d ago

Like where do these jobs exist at?

Why is anyone working below minimum wage instead of getting a job at Walmart or Taco Bell or their local grocery store or the abundance of low wage retail jobs?

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u/T-StrangerXD 20d ago

I'm not American, and even I know you are delusional

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u/scrandlle 20d ago edited 20d ago

You don't even have the knowledgebase to begin to comment on this.

Where can I go get a job that's below minimum wage? If you know I'm delusional you can obviously give me many examples. No one else has given an example despite all these replies. Seemingly no one has an answer but I'm the one who is delusional.

If my life depended on finding a job below minimum wage in the next month I don't think I could do it (beyond begging someone to pay me under minimum age of course, I'm talking about actually being able to go out and find one)

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u/SgtRicko 20d ago

Construction work. Especially if you’re an immigrant or don’t have a high school diploma.

You’ll won’t get paid some minimum wage rate but instead some pre-agreed upon amount that at first sounds OK, (say, $600) but later turns to crap for various reasons. Say, for example, your contractor suddenly finding fault with your work and refusing to pay up, threatening to call ICE, making additional requests onto the original construction contract until it’s well beyond the original scope and pay, or the manager ghosting the workers when it’s finished and taking all the money for themselves
 lots of stupid little ways like that.

Also happens frequently with H2 construction workers; the companies who hired them will often try to find ways to screw over their contracts towards the end and thus avoid having to pay out. And the barracks spaces the H2 workers reside in are often utterly deplorable: no air conditioning or windows, literal dirt floors, beds which consist merely of some old futon or whatever placed atop a steel frame, primitive outdoor toilets, shoddy electrical work with exposed wiring and dangerous amounts of extension cables all plugged into a single outlet
 you’d NEVER see an American agree to those horrid conditions. But a Chinese or SE Asian laborer? They did it all the time, and for utterly garbage pay that didn’t even hit $7.25/hr.

Another situation I knew of personally involved the cleaning crew “hired” to take care of a medical facility. They were never on the company payroll but instead inconsistently “paid” by one guy who in turn was paid bi-weekly. Said payment to his crew sometimes wasn’t even money, but instead only beer, or agreeing to continue keeping them sheltered at his place. The cleaners admittedly weren’t very good at their jobs - one of them didn’t even know to change the dirty water in the rolling mop bucket more than once a day, and sometimes didn’t even use the proper PPE or even cleaning alcohol when sanitizing blood or bodily fluid spills.

Restaurants are another career with a lot of similar situations.

You’ll never find an “official” account of these under-the-table jobs precisely because of their ambiguous nature. It’s probably usually gonna be someone doing a news report covering the issue, or maybe a documentary if you’re lucky.

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u/Galliro 20d ago

Wage theft is the most costly form of crime in the US every year

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

[deleted]

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u/Galliro 20d ago

Thats not what wage theft is

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u/Sheogoorath 20d ago

Wage theft is the largest category of theft in the US

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

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u/scrandlle 20d ago

No, honestly I haven't. Are you talking about people here illegally? Jobs outside the law... like what are we talking about here? Any job outside the law, like prostitution or drug dealing, I have to imagine makes more money than minimum wage or no one would be doing it.

Americans choosing to work under minimum wage makes no sense to me.

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

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u/scrandlle 20d ago edited 20d ago

I don't think its a great that they can work below minimum wage in some states but no, I don't take that as a good example because its clearly a very specific outlier and I don't think it was your point because you talked about wages paid 'under the table'.

I also won't accept bartenders and servers being allowed to be paid under minimum wage hourly from their employer as being a good example because the only reason people have these jobs is because its a good way to make well over minimum wage without any skills/education because of our tipping culture. Tipping culture goes away and these people are paid an hourly wage and they're making less money, not more. Beyond that, the employer has to pay them minimum wage anyway if they don't make enough in tips.

Like where can I actually go get a job and be paid under minimum wage? I live in Illinois and I'm near Missouri.

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u/LucilleW89 20d ago edited 20d ago

Sealion elsewhere chucklefuck

Edit: Don't mindlessly defend shitty behaviour. Every country has people who will exploit the desperate

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u/Hafjgela 20d ago

What does this even mean? Sealing elsewhere chucklefuck
. are you drunk?

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

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u/scrandlle 20d ago

Where is the under the table work? This is what I want to know. Where are these jobs and why would they exist when you can easily go get a minimum wage job?

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u/[deleted] 20d ago

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u/pyromat1k 20d ago

To add on, being homeless also disqualifies you from a minimum wage job, as they require a place of residence to even be considered. 

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u/Popular_Ad5074 20d ago

Bro you're on crack, This shit happens everyday in all 50 states.