Working in China

In Canada, the average salary for a non-elderly female earner in 2005, after taxes, is approximately $28,200/year (source: StatCan). that's a little more than me, but then i'm still a student...
(FYI, it's $33,900 for non-elderly male earners... to me, that's a huge difference)

Average "salary" for people in in SH is 3000yuan/mth. That's about $450Cdn/mth, which is about $5500Cdn/year. You can pretty much live off of that, if you don't have to pay for rent... so basically, it covers cell phone (unless u use it excessively), and food (unless you eat out at fancy restaurants all the time). Mind you, the avg monthly salary for a non-elderly female earner in Canada is about $2350, close in number to the average SH salary. Also, SH boasts the highest avg income in China (excl. HK).... i.e. everyone else makes craploads less. before you start pitying them however, note that most of them are fine - they live perfectly well whereever they are cuz everything else is cheaper everywhere else. Remember, not everyone lives like we do.

Anyway, my cousin is 24 this year. She is a university graduate and lives/breathes/works in China. Given, she doesn't have much [any] work experience, but her current job is utter crap.

University isn't easy to get into in China. Heck, high school isn't easy to get into in China (i joke not; there's a really hard test you have to write ... think SATs but in gr.9 and lasting a week). So, you would think that university grads would get a higher salary than the uneducated people that run abounds...

My cousin, the university graduate, earns 1200yuan/month. that's less than half of the average salary in china. Normal working hrs are 9-5. If she works past 5PM, that's not overtime (actually, usually, chinese companies don't pay any OT). Her company is "better" - they do pay OT if, and only if, she works past 6:30PM. so the first 1.5hrs is free labour. and her OT is 7yuan/hr. Assuming 9-5 = 40hr workweek, and 4 weeks/month, my cousin earns the equivalent of 7.50yuan/hr .... isn't OT supposed to be MORE than your hourly wage?! guess not! the next utterly shocking thing is this: if she's ever late, she's docked 50yuan. I.e. if she's late by one minute today, and then one minute three days from now, that's 100yuan off her paycheck. I think that's ridiculous, don't u?