05.19.07
Facts and Figures: Hours Per Year
The past two weeks I have put more hours into my work than any previous job I have ever had. The job requires eleven hour days every day (weekends included) and I am only allowed off 3 days for the month (or 6 half days, 2 full days and 2 half days, etc.) Today I decided to calculate how this would to compare to a regular job in the United States.
My last full-time job in the United States was working telephone customer service for a company which sold wholesale employee benefits packages. I was 22 at the time, about the same age as most of my colleagues in the barbershop. First let’s compare the number of days worked per year.
Work days: Monday – Friday
365 days per year x 5/7 (to account for weekends) = 261 work days per year before vacation time is subtracted
Vacation Days
regular vacation time (10 days)
New Years Day (1 day)
Martin Luther King Day (1 day)
Labor Day (1 day)
Independence Day (1 day)
Memorial Day (1 day)
Thanksgiving (2 days)
Christmas (2 days)
total = 19 days per year
261 – 19 vacation days = 242 work days per year
At the barber shop there are no weekends off, so before vacation days are subtracted that is a full 365 work days per year.
Vacation Days
regular vacation time (36 days)
Spring Festival (7 days)
total vacation time (43 days)
And that’s it. Other than Spring Festival when the shop closes for a week, the employees must work all holidays unless they choose to spend their regular vacation days. That comes to 322 work days per year.
Now let’s consider the hours worked. My typical work day at my American job was 8 – 5 with a 1 hour break for lunch. That’s 8 hours per day. At the barber shop there are two different shifts, one from 9 am to 8:30 pm and the other from noon until 10:30 pm (sometimes a little later). Minimal time is given for lunch and/or dinner. The employees alternate between working 15 days of the early shift and then 15 days of the slightly shorter late shift. It normally works out to an average of 11 hours on the clock per day.
American job: 242 work days per year x 8 hours per day = 1936 hours worked per year.
Chinese barbershop job: 322 work days per year x 11 hours per day = 3542 hours worked per year.
That comes out to nearly double what typical American workers (and many Chinese white collar workers) put in. And this is for a job which pays a relatively low salary, even by Chinese standards.
If we want an even more gross comparison, let’s look at my last job teaching English in China. I was teaching on a 10 month contract, so to make it fair, let’s adjust the values over a 1 year period. I taught 15 class periods (each 50 minutes) per week. Including planning time, I probably put in 20 hours per week.
Like my American job, I worked Monday through Friday.
365 days per year x 5/7 = 261 work days per year (before vacation time is subtracted)
Vacation days
Spring Festival (20 days)
May Day (3 days)
National Day (3 days)
total vacation time: 26 days.
To adjust for the 10 month schedule, we need to multiply by 6/5 which gives us 31.2 vacation days per year.
261 work days (before vacation) – 31.2 = 229.8 work days per year
20 hours per week / 5 work days = 4 hours per day
229.8 work days per year x 4 hours per day = 919 hours per year.
Here are the totals again.
Teaching English in China: 919 hours per year (230 work days)
American job: 1936 hours per year (242 work days)
Job in Chinese barbershop: 3542 hours per year (322 work days)
So there you have it. My job in the barbershop requires me to put in almost twice the hours I would put in had I been working in the US and nearly 4 times the amount of hours I would have put in as an English teacher in China, not to mention that it also requires nearly 100 more work days per year as well. All this for a job which pays 800 RMB ($105 USD) per month.
Isabel
said,
May 19, 2007 at 3:33 am
Wow, what a stark comparison…glad to see this info, I was just wondering about it the other day. Have you shared this with your fellow barber shop employees?
dezza
said,
May 19, 2007 at 7:25 am
interesting comparisons.
i think this goes to show you the value of a post-secondary education….
Josh
said,
May 19, 2007 at 9:58 am
Seeing those numbers, one would be inclined to think that Chinese are the hardest working folks in show business. That is certainly the math given to me by my students. Many of them tell me of their high school and its 16 hour days.
But work as geography and work as activity are two totally different things. As you pointed out, much of your time is spent just sitting around. In my ample “per hour” employment during high school, I never once had a boss who would’ve accepted me reading magazines on the job. Being busy was encouraged. Looking busy was tolerated. Anything less got you fired.
Unsolicited copyediting: time flies when you’re having fun, but that last line should read “Job in Chinese barbershop: 3542 hours per YEAR”
I really enjoy this series. Thanks.
Benjamin Ross
said,
May 19, 2007 at 10:43 am
Josh-
Change has been made…unsolicited copyediting always welcome!
James Chiang
said,
May 19, 2007 at 10:44 am
That’s true. The work time of Chinese white collar workers is equal to American. But the living condition of common workers and farmers (at least half of total population) is very bad. The gap between the rich and the poor is very wide and getting worse. Hey, Charles Dickens, I feel It taste bitter in your series, but I appreciate it.
Benjamin Ross
said,
May 19, 2007 at 10:49 am
Isabel-
Yes, actually when I was calculating these numbers I was sitting at one of the waiting table in the shop with my coworkers huddled around me. They were very curious how the figures added up as well. However, they were much more interested in the pay differences than the number of hours worked. I’m planning to write a post on that in the next couple days as well.
GangstaCHN
said,
May 19, 2007 at 11:01 am
苦啊
Matt Schiavenza
said,
May 19, 2007 at 11:37 am
Right- the myriad of labor laws passed in the US at the dawn of the 20th century (when the industrialization of American society was of a kin to what’s happening now in China) cemented many of the benefits that we take for granted.
Will China have an analogous progressive movement built upon improving labor conditions? Anyone want to place a bet as to whether or not that’ll happen?
M.
said,
May 19, 2007 at 12:55 pm
Another intestesting post!
It’s funny to read your post, because I did the maths for my own job a few days ago.
365 days per year x 5/7 = 261 work days per year (before vacation time is subtracted)
Vacation days
Spring Festival (21 days)
May Day (4 days)
National Day (3 days)
New Year’s Day: 1 day
Summer holiday: 22 days
Total vacation days: 53 days
Total working days: 261 – 53 = 208
Average working hours per week: 18 hours
Of course, comparing jobs is very difficult/ impossible.
So here’s a question, do you like your job? Do you enjoy it? Do your coworkers enjoy it?
Can you ask your coworker about their benefits?
Arlene
said,
May 19, 2007 at 10:21 pm
While u r working in the barber’s, I find u really learn a lot about the Chinese people working in the lower tratum. We should acknowleage the fact that they r someone who lead a bleak life. I am so glad that u could have the courage to take such a job. Chinese society is so complex that one could not make any assessment until he/she experiences it. Among all articals I read, I appreciated ur honesty about the snobbishness of some Westerners. During my interview, I did encounter some terrible people. Anyway, I will come to ur blog whenever I have time. Enjoy ur days and work in China~~
Benjamin Ross
said,
May 20, 2007 at 12:41 am
M.-
I enjoy my job quite a bit, but as Jiang (my coworker) put it to me “You’re probably enjoying the job now, but if you did it every day for several years you wouldn’t like it very much,” and that generally summarizes most of their opinions. I do not know anybody I work with who could unequivocally say they like their job. Most of them are from the countryside and have only a middle school education. Working in a barbershop in the city, and trying to move up the ranks of the hairstyling industry (i.e. Mr. Zheng) is the highest they can realistically expect to get in the social ladder…there are of course occasional exceptions. That being said, I would say that my coworkers definitely prefer their lives in Fuzhou over the life they would have been living had they remained in their hometown. To Chinese people, location is very important and in their eyes living in Fuzhou is much better than living in a small town three hours away from Fuzhou, even if you are doing the exact same work.
As for benefits, Xiao Wang (another coworker) had this to say to me. “You live in America which is a country with good benefits. China is different. In our country, there are too many people for the government to give us benefits, and in our industry (hairstyling) we do not get benefits either. Therefore, Chinese people need to save up a lot of money in they lose their job or something else bad happens.”
This sums up things pretty well. The only benefit you get is your paycheck on the 15th of every month. The shop does provide housing (a 3 bedroom apartment shared by 10 people), but that’s it. I’m not sure how this compares to a white collar Chinese job. Anybody out there know?
Jenn
said,
May 20, 2007 at 10:24 am
Triple the number of work hours explains why I am listening to rocks and bricks being thrown off of the government building across the way on a Sunday morning.
The benefits for blue collar workers seemed pretty standard. No health insurance, paid once (at most twice) per month and extremely cramped housing. Always less than 1000 yuan per month.
The benefits for white collar workers really seem to vary on industry, experience, private or state, etc. For instance, some companies give women employees a bonus on International Women’s Day. The govt/media make a big deal out of it, as if all women do, but I have yet to interview or meet one that actually did receive one this year. Some white collars also get huge bonuses around Spring Festival, have personal driver’s, unemployment benefits, health care, etc.
Many of them do not have health insurance either, but for people who make even four times more than the average worker the cost of a prescription isn’t an issue to most of these people.
Jack
said,
May 20, 2007 at 3:33 pm
I work as a market analyst for a fairly well-known Chinese company (so I won’t name it here). The entry-level monthly salary for people with foreign citizenships like me is about 10k. A Chinese citizen with my job would probably get about 1/3 as much. Our health benefits are pretty good, you get coverage for yourself, your spouse (both 80 some %) and your children (50%).
Other than the standard vacation days, we get 10 paid days off per year (will go up if you work longer).
On the subject of taxes, this company actually deducts the full amount of taxes from employees’ paychecks, unlike the last company I worked for. Perhaps because it’s too big of a target. Taxes in China is pretty low by American standards though. I get taxed at about 10-15%, even though my income level is usually shown as the highest strata on surveys (probably equivalent to making 200-400k / year in the US).
Generally, the company’s trying to “internationalize” on the HR front, so it’s learning from companies in the West.
chriswaugh_bj
said,
May 20, 2007 at 4:36 pm
@Ben: Is it the location that matters, or the relative quality of life/economic opportunity offered by different locations?
Benjamin Ross
said,
May 20, 2007 at 11:04 pm
@Jack
Thanks for the figures. Just curious if by 10k you mean 10,000 RMB per month, or 10k in a foreign currency?
@chriswaugh_bj
It is both. Living in Fuzhou presents considerably more opportunities than living in the countryside…from entertainment, to jobs, to finding friends or possibly a wife or husband, there are just more opportunities in the big cities (I’m taking these words directly from a multitude of Chinese people). It is also a face issue. For example, nobody in my barbershop is actually from Fuzhou. Fuzhou people simply don’t do that kind of work….in Fuzhou. Now if you go to to Chinatown in New York City, you will find large amounts of Fuzhou people working in barbershops, washing dishes, doing construction, or any other of a number of jobs which they would not do in Fuzhou.
Michael Kayton
said,
May 21, 2007 at 12:02 am
I queried a few workers at my local Starbucks in Dalian as to their job satisfaction and benefits. I got the general impression that they *are* satisfied with the work. I was also glad to hear that Starbucks does provide health insurance.
I think a service job at a Western brand operation – Starbucks, Pizza Hut, etc. – is held in relatively higher regard in China than in the US. The Starbucks I go to is wholly owned – meaning it’s is directly owned by the Starbucks company. Other branches are owned by local partner companies. I am not sure how the salary/benefits differ between the two ownership arrangements.
Jack
said,
May 22, 2007 at 12:47 pm
@Ben:
You’re welcome. That monthly salary is in RMB, after tax.
Hunter
said,
May 23, 2007 at 2:39 pm
I think I’m an example of a Chinese white collar worker. I’m in my mid-30s, never lived in the West, graduated from a Chinese University and hold a doctorate degree, working in a US company in Shanghai. My monthly salary is about RMB 20,000, 13 months pay per year (one month pay as bonus). Full taxed about 20%, and have all benifits in Chinese called “四金”: endowment, unemployment & hospitalization insurance, and housing accumulation fund.
It’s one reason why people want to live in big city like Shanghai, Beijing… Just as Ben mentioned, there are just more opportunities in the big cities.
The drawback is that living cost in big city is much higher. I came from a small town of North China, my friend in my hometown earns about 1/5 of me, but the house he’s living costed him 100,000 RMB, while I paid more than 10 times of that for my home in Shanghai (on loan of course). It’s really hard to say my living conditions is better than my friend.
But, I still love to live in Shnghai rather than the samller cities, just as most Chinese do. Since it gives me the opputunity to expand my life, I think.
doc martin
said,
August 8, 2007 at 10:36 am
well . . . good to get the drift; i will be leaving new york city in ten days to teach english in two universities in guangzhou, i had to work two full-time professor’s jobs to be able to survive. at around $1000 a month each–which most chinese consider a good salary (god knows how one buys and runs a car–and there are plenty of them); the ticket alone is $1000 roundtrip, and one does want to have the option of leaving, lol. compared to $60k+ of a union university teaching job, plus thousands of dollars of benefits, and months of paid vacation, it might seem like i’m headed in the wrong direction, but . . . it’s an adventure that may pay off in many different ways, not least of which is that my honey is there, and perhaps we’ll be married in the spring. ben, keep in touch, if you and/or others are passing through guangzhou, drop me a line and we’ll do lunch, as we say around here! best to all, doc