Apple lead the way to increase assembly line workers' pay by putting in their contracts that workers on Apple assembly lines be paid three times the going rate for assembly line workers. By 2010, Apple assembly line workers were earning that rate. . . while workers on HP, IBM, Sony, Microsoft, and all other assembly jobs were earning the equivalent of $128 a month plus room and board, Apple's assembly line workers were getting the equivalent of $384 a month assembling iPhones and then iPads plus room and board. This is why there were always thousands of applicants for each job opening when they became available on Apple lines. Terry Gou saw how much more productivity Apple workers turned in announced that by the end of 2012, ALL workers would be raised to that level . . . and by the end of 2013 the rate was the equivalent of $700 with overtime. . . but factory workers must pay room and board, but it is not very expensive. Many opt to live in town.
I was pointing the finger at Lenovo, HP, Dell and Acer (among others non-Apple), who are rarely chastised although far guiltier than anything Apple is accused of. Anyway, I’m thinking of getting a new iMac (my main machines are a MacMini and Macbook). They’re stated as Assembled in the USA, with a lot of US components. From a cursory search I’m only seeing news articles from 2012 on that. Any idea of how much iMac content is US as of now? Not that it matters, just curious.