The British newspaper The Guardian recently ran an article about Chinese Gold Farmers. The following are the highlights:
Workers can expect to earn between £80-£120 [$110-180]a month which, given the long hours and night shifts, can amount to as little as 30p an hour. After completing his shift, Li is given a basic meal of rice, meat and vegetables and falls into a bunk bed in a room that eight other gold farmers share. His wages may be low, but food and accommodation are included.
These virtual industries sound surreal, but they are fast entering the mainstream. According to a report by Richard Heeks at Manchester University, an estimated 400,000 Asian workers are now employed in gold farming in a trade worth up to £700m a year. With so many gamers now online, these industries are estimated to have a consumer base of five million to 10 million, and numbers are expected to grow with widening internet access.
These figures mean big business. The gold farming industry may be about playing games, but these companies take their work seriously. At Wow7gold, a sophisticated division of labour splits workers into different departments, including production, sales, advertising and research. What's interesting about this "virtual division of labour" is that traditional concepts of "men's work" and "women's work" still apply. While young, largely unskilled "playbourers" such as Li spend their days toiling in the virtual field, highly skilled female graduates receive higher salaries working as customer service operators.
Eva Yuan is one such operator. A 26-year-old graduate who speaks three languages, she has been working in the white-collar departments of Wow7gold for more than a year..After leaving university, Yuan was unable to find employment in the "real" economy. Now, the £250 [$350] she makes every month at Wow7gold allows her - with a bit of help from her parents - to support her one-year-old son.
The average income in China is $2,025 ($168/month) according to the world bank which comes within the range of the gold farmers in the article (who also get free room & board, meals and most importantly an office job with air conditioning). This doesn't mean that gold farmers live in ideal circumstances, but it's important when making judgments to make comparisons on a relative basis.