[bluGill]

50k is just a step above McDonalds these days in a lot of areas. Sure minimum wage might be $15k, but realistically nobody pays that little except in very rural areas (if you need a small number of low skilled employees a small rural town is a perfect spot to build - but if you need more than a small number they can't provide more at any price - you will pay more in the city but there are a lot more people around if you need more)

[somanyphotons]

McDonalds in Sunnyvale CA starts at 20/h, so 41k/year for the lowest role

[gjsman-1000]

Perhaps - in California.

Median US Salary is $59,384. Half of workers make less.

[onlyrealcuzzo]

You need to factor in that only ~30% of workers work full-time.

Men with a bachelor's degree who work full-time have a median income is ~$89k - (basically the entire demographic of these TSMC workers).

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf

[gjsman-1000]

The statistic I gave was for solely full-time workers in the US.

[thecosas]

Keep in mind the plant they are talking about is in AZ, where median wages and cost of living are generally lower than California.

[hx8]

Medium individual income in AZ is ~37k. I'm not sure how many Americans would give up a 40hour/week job for a 996 that pays 13k more.

[BobaFloutist]

AZ minimum wage is 14.70. If it was 996 and you somehow only got straight time for working 72h a week, it would pay 55000. Assuming there's no overtime exemption it would be $67000. I'm pretty sure it's not a 996 in AZ.

[TypingOutBugs]

Why does it have to be 996 at TSMC in the US?

[johnnyanmac]

Very easily if they need to pay overtime here. I'd be very surprised to find an argument of $37k being exempt in any state.

They will indeed burn themselves out, but that's their choice of work/life balance vs. pay.

[bluGill]

By how much? Where I live in IA McDonalds is starting at $17/hour, which is not that much behind California. (and both states are large enough to expect some variation depending on where you live)