They can't seem to grasp that the cost of living is not the same everywhere in the world that it is here in the US. For example, in China an apartment in the city will rent for the equivalent of $125 a month. Staying in the dorm at FoxConn with Room and Board is about $70 per month. In town you pay for your own meals while away from work, but at work they're provided.
Now, working at a regular assembly line can get you up to $2.50 per hour, but an Apple line can pay up to $3.70 per hour. 12 hour day for the peak Apple worker makes $44.40 X 6 days = $266.40. $1065.60 plus $222 overtime = $1287.60. The regular worker can get $30 per day, $180 per week. $720 per month plus $150 overtime = $870.
Not bad pay for hard, long work, but the cost of living isn't bad. It's far better pay than shop clerks get. Minimum wage in China is about the equivalent of a little less than $1 an hour.
The Apple assembly line top pay, in relation to US $7.25 minimum wage would be the equivalent of about $28 an hour. . . if the job were here.
I did work on a mine on Iryan Jaya - disputed island in Indonesia. The two guys that helped us with field labor made 50 cents an hour. With us they made $1.50 an hour as we worked longer than 8 hours and were off the mine site proper. They also were housed by the mine in shipping containers, and ate free at the cafeteria.
When I heard they only got paid 50 cents an hour I said something like “So is it true you get paid 50 cents an hour!?”
“Oh yes!! Best in all of Indonesia!”
Further conversation I found out that the one guy (carpenter by trade) was going to work at the mine for five years, then go back to his island and wife and children as he would have enough money to build a house.
That was 20 years ago. I just paid off my mortgage after 25 years! (Granted, my house and his house are probably quite a bit different, but...)