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aaronkrolik

The exact ad in question: https://twitter.com/michaelluo/status/625082960547610626

also should add the author of this nybooks article never interviewed the NYT author.

more related work:

http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/05/20/q-and-a-luo-y...

http://fusion.net/story/132309/nail-salon-expose-my-manicuri...

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It's a very strange dichotomy that $10 for a training or learning position is considered oppressive, but if it was unpaid (internship) or the trainee had to pay tuition for classes, it would be totally a non-issue.

Most kinds of unpaid internships are illegal, and it's become a louder issue in the last year or so. http://www.businessinsider.com/is-my-unpaid-internship-illeg...

That happens as well: http://m.animalnewyork.com/2015/i-went-undercover-as-a-nail-...

The OP article is criticizing the claim from the original piece that this sort of ad is typical. (From original piece: "Asian-language newspapers are rife with classified ads listing manicurist jobs paying so little the daily wage can at first glance appear to be a typo.") If it's true that most ads list nothing, and that vast majority that do list wages list more than $70/day, then I'd say the original reporter is clearly being disingenuous.

Incidentally, here's the reporter saying that the OP article claimed the $10/day ad didn't exist:

> The ad that "doesn't exist" according to @R_Bernstein & @nybooks who calls me a liar & didn't bother to interview me

https://twitter.com/SarahMaslinNir/status/625085019199934464

But he never says that right? (Certainly his inability to find this ad speaks to his not being thorough.)

> The exact ad in question: https://twitter.com/michaelluo/status/625082960547610626

Would it really have killed them to post an image with legible text? How is this supposed to help anyone?

It was posted with legible text, but twitter likes to resize things. https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CKy9o8kWUAEluKa.jpg:orig

While that's better, it's still very bad. I cannot identify most of the characters. Someone fluent in the language would do better, but... I don't think text that can be read even if you're not fluent is a particularly extravagant requirement.

Here's what I can get:

P/T F/T??? 毛小工$75可3點後上班學徒??$10 qq??74857128電話或微信 347-952-5533

(as I read it, "part time and full time jobs (???) -- small work with (eyelashes? eyebrows?) $75, start after 3:00 -- apprentice (??) $10 -- QQ (??) 74857128 [editorial note: wow! that's a low number] -- telephone or wechat 347-952-5533")

But a lot of those characters come from my knowledge of what's likely to be said in the ad, not from my ability to recognize them in the image.

Here is the same ad posted somewhere else:

http://www.meimin.us/bencandy.php?fid=27&id=265577&city_id=3

I wonder if the $10 isn't per hour, rather than per day.

ah --

"licensed eyebrow plucker $75, start after 3:00, apprentice base pay $10"

Would you happen to know why this ad is in simplified characters (except the 拔) while the other one is in traditionals?

The $10 probably is per day; $10 / hour seems high for an untrained, unlicensed worker (and $75 / hour seems high for a licensed eyebrow plucker, too). On the other hand, the apprentice can apparently expect tips just like the licensed worker, if the reference to "base pay" is anything to go by.

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