According the Register, Apple’s contractor in China, Foxconn, has been breaking Chinese labour laws in its iPod factories.  Its employees were forced to work at least 80 extra hours a month, paying the workers the local minimum wage.  And, according to Foxconn, an Apple representative inspected the factories and gave them “the thumbs up.”

Wired has an article with more specifics about the salary that the Chinese women working in the factory make:

According to the report (paraphrased here by Macworld UK), Foxconn’s giant Longhua plant employs 200,000 workers, who work 15-hour days but are paid just $50 a month — miserable even by China’s standards. It claims they work and live in the plant, in dormitories housing 100 people, and outside visitors are forbidden.

However, the large corporations running factories in China and abroad claim to enforce basic standards of living across all of their sites.  And, while these standards are lower than US standards, they are probably above an “acceptable” line by some local measure, or no one would choose to work at the factory.