Wow... no agenda on this “article” that doesn’t look horrible in the least. For a vacated property, a little mildew around the floor drain in the bathroom? And those rooms are hardly cramped... May not meet McMansion standards, but hardly is it what they want it to be portrayed as.
I had the same thought. Go into any closed down college dorm months after it’s closed down, and I bet it wouldn’t look much different.
250 pounds a month and they charge 16 for rent. I’ll bet they forgot to show the cafeteria where all meals are provided.
250 is below the average for an electrical trade worked in Shanghai of about 500 per month, but if dorms are provided, that’s not too bad. It works out to 6.4%.
My modest 3 bedroom home costs me about 20% of my gross monthly pay and that doesn’t include utilities, food etc.
Those certainly are not slave quarters.
I agree, except for the lack of Western toilets it looks a great deal like my dorm room from the mid eighties.
These workers where making about $650 a month and only paying about $23 a month for room and board.
So in all reality in a country like China where the average monthly wage is less than $400 a month they where making a killing and getting to keep a vast majority of their pay.
If it was not paying high enough wages, why where there so many people willing to work for such low pay?
I worked in Indonesia on a project in the early 90’s.
I would give my local field helpers a Snickers bar at lunch, and one on the drive home. One time they were lazy and I didn’t give them the one on the way home.
Their local boss told me they were very upset about it. He explained that they got paid 50 cents an hour - so that candy was worth much more to them.
I commented to the one worker that could speak English - “You get paid 50 cents an hour!?”
“Oh YES! Best in all of Indonesia (was a Canadian run mine). PLUS free room and board! In six years I will have enough money to build my family our own home!”
His lodging was in a dorm that looked about like the photos. Other workers lived in converted shipping containers!
It is bad by Western standards, but many Chinese homes still lack indoor plumbing.