Why Did Tesla Cut Salaries?

In 2020, Tesla CEO Elon Musk planned to give collective salary increases to employees at the Shanghai Gigafactory. What should have been great news was met with collective opposition from domestic automakers, forcing Tesla to reduce worker base salaries from 10,000 yuan to 8,000 yuan, then down to 5,000 yuan, with benefits cut in half.

The reason? Tesla's salary increases would allegedly disrupt the market and cause their own employees to jump ship to competitors.

Of course, there's an unspoken reason: when worker wages rise, bosses earn less. Despite this, Tesla's compensation still exceeds most domestic automakers.

What's more absurd is that Musk felt bad for Shanghai factory workers and secretly added performance bonuses—only to have certain automakers report him for it.

In contrast, German Tesla factory workers recently went on strike, complaining about working five days, eight-hour shifts for an average salary of 4,200 euros—calling Tesla a sweatshop.

What does 4,200 euros mean? Workers can buy two grams of gold per day of work.

The German Tesla factory has the best employee benefits among all Tesla factories globally, while the Shanghai facility has the lowest wages and highest efficiency.

Domestic automakers chase refrigerators, color TVs, and large sofas—throwing money at marketing. Tesla focuses on making cars safer and smarter.

You can say Tesla's interior is bare bones and the hidden door handles are anti-human, but you must admit Tesla leads the new energy vehicle segment by a wide margin.

This forces us to reflect: why can't automakers with 12-hour double shifts and outsourced labor outperform Tesla's five-day work week?

Ultimately, it's a corporate culture issue. If a company exploits its own employees relentlessly, how can you expect it to treat consumers well?

If a company can only reduce costs through employee exploitation, can its product quality actually be good?

That said, it's encouraging that China has many automakers genuinely investing in R&D rather than marketing gimmicks, with many companies advancing rapidly technologically.

With these enterprises, we can surely surpass Tesla.