iPhone factory salaries to rise again

Foxconn, the China-based company which manufactures iPhones and iPads, has announced that it is to raise the wages of workers at its Shenzhen plant - for the second time in a week.

The company has been plagued by reports of worker depression, with 10 employees from that facility in 2010 alone committing suicide. While Apple boss Steve Jobs rejects criticisms of poor working conditions at the factory, Foxconn has increased the basic salary by 30 per cent, with a new conditional 70 per cent hike also now set for October.

"While overtime work was always voluntary, this wage increase will reduce overtime work as a personal necessity," read a statement, according to the BBC.

Assembly line workers were initially offered a 20 per cent increase from Ұ900 ($132) per month, but this was changed to 30 per cent last week.

Now, the firm is offering to up that to Ұ2000 ($293) per month for employees that pass a 3-month performance test.

The rise is specific to the Shenzhen factory, although workers at Foxconn's other locations will also see wages increase from the beginning of July.

But Jobs - who has overseen a new wave of Apple market presence occur with the release of the iPhone, and now iPad - was impressed with the facility.

"You go in this place and it's a factory but, my gosh, they've got restaurants and movie theatres and hospitals and swimming pools. For a factory, it's pretty nice," he told a conference audience last week. "Foxconn is not a sweatshop."