Wages and work in Cambodia

This quote from the Phnom Penh post is exactly what I hear from so many Cambodian workers. 12 to 15 hours a day for $50 to $100 a month. With 1 day a month off. I don’t know how they do it.
“A woman who has been employed as a domestic worker in Phnom Penh’s Toul Kork for the past three years, identifying herself only as Pheap, told the Post that her work hours are not kept track of and her day is only complete when all tasks are finished.”

“I never knew my rights as a domestic worker, because I cannot read and I am not aware of the laws associated with my job,” Pheap said. “I have to get up at 4am or 5am every day, and I work until midnight. I receive $80 per month, but sometimes I get a bonus from my boss when we have a major holiday such as New Year or Pchum Ben.”

There is a call for an 8 hour work day and $150 minimum wage per month with 2 days a week off. That would be radical here. Ironically if you have a government job, teacher, police, military and the like you don’t have to show up for very many hours a day and get lots of extended holidays. Very little pay, but you can take on other jobs. Which is why there is so much corruption here. The police are allowed to take the money for tickets and set the price, teachers charge for tests, grading the tests and cheat sheets. It is all part of the system. And somehow the economy is growing. Prostitution is high because it is one way to make some real money. Of course where there is real money there will be those that exploit others to make them work cheap and collect the profits for themselves. So the government employees control much of the brothel business. Unlike the stereotype we see in the tourist bar areas, most “massage” and “sex services” are for Khmer men and other Asians. Just take a trip to the airport on the toll road from Phnom Penh. It’s packed with Khmer men taking advantage of the cheap hostess bars and sex services and not a European face to be seen.

But I fear that very few Cambodians are benefiting from any of the businesses here. Siem Reap where the Angkor Wat is collecting hefty fees that could be put back into restoration is going to a mega corporation Sokamex which already has oil and gas and high end tourism income galour. It’s not hard to observe that there are a few Cambodians at the top driving their Hummers with body guards at the ready and most people barely making it. There is also lot of foreign money and investment in tourism and business that extracts labor, raw materials and tourist money leaves the country rather than being put back into it.

As you see when you get out of the tourist areas most people are still subsisting on farming and fishing or both.

Making a little for food and school

This morning on my walk, a lanky boy of about 10 years old joined me and introduced himself with the usual “Hello, what’s you name?”  Part of my personal mission in Cambodia is to say “hello” back to every child that says it to me.  No easy task some mornings when I get gang “helloed” by a group of 3 and 4 year olds near our house. So I smiled and said “hello and how are you?”  This usually stumps them when I ask a question back as most kids just know to say “Hello” or “Where you go?”  but not any more English than that it seems.  But this young man struck up a pretty good conversation with me.  Enough to where between my limited Khmer and his better English I could find out about his family and he about mine.

Boy buying sugarcane from wholesalers

It turned out that he was from a nearby village and had walked to town to buy some sugar cane stalks to resell at home. He told me his dad was dead and he had 3 sisters in the capital Phnom Penh but he lived with his grandmother and 2 sisters locally. He said his grandmother worked hard everyday to make enough money so they could eat. He was going to try to resell sugar cane to make a few pennies.  I say pennies for my North American readers as with the price of sugar cane and the competition I know he can only make a few cents for all his work. But it all helps and it was good to see his good natured ambition to contribute to his family. It must be a big load on a boy his age.  On my way back I followed him from a distance pretending to just be sightseeing as I didn’t want to appear to be stalking him.  He was stopped while in route by some young girls whom he sold a couple of canes to and hopefully made a little profit.  Then I walked on and was once again mad at myself for not bringing my good camera.

Selling Sugar Cane

Just had my old cell phone but at least it gives a little visual for you. He obviously had someone looking out for him though because he said he was studying english in school and had the vocabulary to prove it.  School here, even public school costs money.  He was also a smart cookie as he could actually have a conversation with me which is more than most kids I’ve met who have studied a lot of English.