Internet celebrity makes apology for low pay and high workload in the company

The company of the net celebrity "Wang Ma" released a letter of apology online after its former staff members and job applicants reported their irrationally low payment but highly intensive workload at the company.

"Wang Ma", meaning a nanny surnamed Wang in Chinese, is the main character of an online short play presented at a douyin account called "Qi ke xing xing". The account so far has about 16.58 million followers at Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

The sitcoms have soon gone viral online after they debuted in March, as "Wang Ma" has been portrayed as a sober female with a sharp tongue who dares to fight against improper or irrational requirements from her boss with comedic and facetious acts. Many netizens commented online that they resonated with "Wang Ma" and had been cheered up and inspired by her.

However, some staff members and job applicants to the company — Wuhan Huangye Culture and Media Co in Hubei province, running the douyin account of "Wang Ma" — unmasked the harsher working environment and low pay at the company.

They revealed that the company required its members to work following "big week, small week" — working a six-day week every two weeks — and only pay 4,000 yuan ($552) or less for highly-intensive jobs, as reported by ChinaNews.com.

There were no working computers, and there was no additional pay for overtime work. No social insurance would be given to interns, and the insurance is also a vague problem for its permanent workers, according to ChinaNews.com.

The company made an apology on Tuesday on Weibo, claiming that it has paid full social insurance for its permanent workers and will optimize the payment management system in the future.

According to the company's apology letter, it has decided to raise the minimum payment to 6,000 yuan ($828) per month to all its workers and canceled the working hour rule of "big week, small week". It will offer extra holidays to its workers in addition to the nation's official holidays and offer office supplies like computers.

Also, it promised to hire extras, pay them reasonable salaries through regular brokerage firms and try its best to protect their rights.