Not a factory, and Korean instead of Chinese, but I worked for one of the major householdname Korean conglomerates at their US branch. It was well known amongst the Korean and Korean-American employees that their salaries were lowballed versus their non-Korean colleagues, and that they were also expected to work longer hours.
The reason?
"Korean Pride".
You were expected to go above and beyond for sake of the glory and well being of the Republic of Korea and the Korean People, via the proxy of The Company.
Most of us (myself included) internally thought this was total bullshit, and were on the lookout for the first opportunity to jump ship specifically for a non-Korean company. Of course we would never admit that to a manager, especially the expats from Korea.
It was also known that the best teams to work for in terms of work-life balance and just general pleasantness were ones where the manager and teammates were comprised mostly (or entirely) of non-Koreans, or at least heavily Americanized Korean-Americans. Having an older conservative expat Korean manager was the worst possible scenario.
One nice perk was having a big name like The Company on your resume wasn't bad at all for future job prospects.
The reason?
"Korean Pride".
You were expected to go above and beyond for sake of the glory and well being of the Republic of Korea and the Korean People, via the proxy of The Company.
Most of us (myself included) internally thought this was total bullshit, and were on the lookout for the first opportunity to jump ship specifically for a non-Korean company. Of course we would never admit that to a manager, especially the expats from Korea.
It was also known that the best teams to work for in terms of work-life balance and just general pleasantness were ones where the manager and teammates were comprised mostly (or entirely) of non-Koreans, or at least heavily Americanized Korean-Americans. Having an older conservative expat Korean manager was the worst possible scenario.
One nice perk was having a big name like The Company on your resume wasn't bad at all for future job prospects.