Apple supplier Foxconn raises worker pay as much as 25%

Foxconn, a supplier for Apple, Microsoft, Samsung and many other top electronics brands, is giving its employees a raise of 16% to 25% this month as the company faces new scrutiny about its workplace conditions.

The raise is reportedly the third that Foxconn has given to employees since 2010 and comes as the Fair Labor Assn. is monitoring its factories, media scrutiny (sparked by an investigative series in the New York Times) is at a high point, and activists such as Change.com are calling for improved pay and work environments.

According to a Reuters report, Foxconn said it has raised the pay of its “junior level” workers in Shenzhen, China, to about 1,800 yuan, or about $290, each month, up from about 900 yuan three years ago.

Auret van Heerden, chief executive of the Fair Labor Assn., told Bloomberg on Friday that the industry-funded watchdog group had found “tons of issues” after inspections of three Foxconn plants in China that are taking place at the request of Apple, which is a member of the worker rights group.

Van Heerden told Bloomberg that its inspectors would present findings to Foxconn managers and that he believed “we’re going to see some very significant announcements in the near future.” Though just what those announcements are, Van Heerden wasn’t ready to say yet, the report said.

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