4 POST: The idea of progress: Quantity vs Quality

Quantity

Quality

Chinese Workers Should Work Less, Spend More, Report Says

Dec 3, 2014 12:06 pm HKT

Two Chinese men take a break outside an office on December 1, 2014 in Beijing.

 

GETTY IMAGES

Stop working long hours — it’s bad for your health and the country’s economic growth. That’s the message academics want to send to China’s 769 million workers.

The Chinese economy—the world’s second-largest– has long benefited from its hardworking factory workers who churn out everything from handbags to iPhones, as well as its many white-collar toilers who eat their dinner at the office to meet deadlines. The average Chinese worker works between 2,000-2,200 hours every year in China, Wang Qi, a researcher of the Beijing Normal University, told China Real Time. Such an estimate was based on data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, industry groups and online questionnaires.

By contrast, the average worker residing in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries works some 1,770 hours, according to the Paris-based organization.

Though such a hardworking ethos may be praiseworthy, some economists say it is time for Chinese employers to cut down on their employees’ working hours. Doing so, they say, can help workers feel better-rested – boosting productivity – and also spur consumption, a key government objective, with more leisure hours that can be devoted to shopping.

Lai Desheng, a Beijing Normal University professor who led the study of Chinese working hours, said long working hours aren’t in China’s best interest, according to a transcript of the event.

“It may have been one of the secrets that help created the ‘China miracle’ but it has created a lot of problems,” Mr. Lai said, citing the frequency of workplace accidents, which tend to happen when workers are tired. “It is not sustainable.”

Shorter working hours will enhance innovation, he argues, with workers having more time to take up new skills and explore fresh ideas. It will also bolster employment, with employers forced to hire more workers, he said.

Among Chinese workers, the hardest-working are typically migrants. In 2013, the average migrant worker worked 8.8 hours each day, with nearly 85% of migrants working more than 44 hours every week, according to National Bureau of Statistics data. They earned an average monthly salary of 2,609 yuan ($424) last year, up almost 14% from a year earlier, official data showed.

The Beijing Normal study, which looks at different sectors, found that those employed in the hospitality and catering work an average 51.4 hours of work per week, the highest among all industries.

But studies tend to underestimate the population’s actual working hours, thanks to undercounting from official sources, said Beijing-based labor-rights researcher Wang Jiangsong, a professor at the China Institute of Industrial Relations.

“The problem is that the wages are still too low, so workers have no choice but to work extra hours to support their families, ” Mr. Wang said, adding that many workers would struggle to cover even their daily expenses if they only worked eight hours a day.

China’s policy makers have said they want to push economic restructuring by boosting consumption and reducing the economy’s reliance on exports and investment.

But Mr. Wang says that won’t happen without sufficient wage increases. “If the workers can barely make ends meet unless they work long hours, how do you expect them to spend?” Mr. Wang said.

Li Yuge, 60, cleans bathrooms at an office building in Beijing. The native of eastern Shandong province said she works from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. six days a week and earns 2,600 yuan per month.

But she said she doesn’t mind the long hours. “I just save all my money for retirement,” she said.

– Liyan Qi

Commentary

First of all, I would like to point out that in the United States, there is a lot of Sweatshops. What is a sweatshop ? A sweatshop is defined as a factory that breaks more than two labor laws. For example laws that are often broken are, unclean or unhealthy conditions, dangerous workplace, unlawful detainment and non-payed or overextended work hours. 

Today, however, it is a well-known fact that people in other countries than China used to employ, people from China because it is more cheaper. 

In fact, it is quite clear that the first document is an cartoon from Harley Schwadron, he wanted to criticizes the fact that in China people used to work too much. We can see that is written in the door « China sweatshop factory » and « Inhuman resources DEPT » it symbolizes that first the Chinese in this factory are working a lot and that if they want help they have to go to the inhuman resources whereas normally is human resources.

Yet, it seems to me that the second document is an article from the well known Newspaper, The Wall Street Journal. This article, was written by Liyan Qi a researcher at Beijing Normal University. He declares that Chinese have to stop working long hours because it is bad for their health. He also says that it is better working less to have a better product than working more to have a bad product. 

To put it in a nutshell, I will say that it is an cultural progress, which everybody have to be concerned. That in a stake it will be a dehumanization, social inequalities, economic opportunities and much more. The only advantages of this is that the boss of this industry is going to get more money that he supposed to. But there is more disadvantages, it is hanuman to let people of 5 to 90 years work as long as they are demanded, in the sweatshops factory the condition of life is horrible, could you imagine that there are people who works and then when they go to sleep there is a mattress just behind them. 

Finally we may hint at the simple thing that quality and quantity are two thing very related and that for this example is better less quantity for a better quality.