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Thompson 1
Chris Thompson
Dr. Bhattacharya
English 101
24 March, 2015
The Unfair Billions
I believe that regardless of the age, culture, or ethnicity of the worker they should
receive fair wages. As well as they should have a stable working environment to work in,
especially when being employed by such prestigious companies such as Apple, Samsung, and
Intel. Being paid next to nothing by a company that obtains a 56 billion dollar net worth makes
the company out to seem overzealous. My goal by the end of this research paper is to go more in
depth on how all employees are treated spread out between three different companies in the
technology sector. The main focus is to be able to identify which company out of the five top
technology companies treats their employees more fairly and doesn’t take short cuts to make an
extra buck. Also, the purpose will be to inform readers of what goes on in the factories of these
popular companies, and the workers that create the products most people use every day.
Apple Inc. is an electronic company worth 56.6 billion dollars widely known for their
iPhone, iMac, and iPods, and headquartered right here in the United States in Cupertino, CA.
Their past treatment of employees in their across the sea factories is quite shocking. Their
Foxconn factory, located in China, has 920,000 employees and makes 2.2 billion dollars in gross
profit (Myers). A hefty number, but they endure their employees with forced overtime that rarely
results in pay, not to mention that their overall wages are extremely low at about only $250 a
month! Apple was found having numerous children as young as fourteen years old working in
their factory, the legal age in China is sixteen. Ironically, Apple’s factories have poor living
Thompson 2
dormitories that are located right outside of the factories so they can get into work quicker. With
all the forced overtime and harsh working conditions, workers have been known to throw their
selves off the top of the Shenzhen assembly plants at Foxconn and commit suicide (Myers). In
response, Apple implemented netting around the building to stop people from jumping, but it still
has a little impact on the suicides that take place because people find ways around it.
At an Apple factory called Wintek, workers were exposed to a chemical called N-
HEXANE that caused workers serious nerve damage, headaches, and dizziness. There was a case
where a man could never even go outside again without wearing protective clothing, because his
