The plight of garbage collectors

A shopping mall managing company in Dongguan, Guangdong province, has decided to divide garbage collectors into two categories, regardless of their workload, and thus offers different salaries to the two groups. The young and "good-looking" ones can get 1,800 yuan ($300) a month while the other group gets only 1,650 yuan. The city's labor law enforcement authority has said that such an arrangement is "employment discrimination". In fact, there is no rationality behind such an arrangement, says an article on China Youth Daily. Excerpts:

The young and "good-looking" garbage collectors could project a good image of the shopping mall, because judging people by their looks seems to have become an accepted social reality, no matter how misconstrued the idea is.

In today's society, appearance has become an important part of a person's personality. The "better" the looks of a person, the more power he/she is supposed to have to boost social vitality and productivity. In this sense, paying garbage collectors of a shopping mall according to their looks is not an abnormal business phenomenon.