| I believe the minimum age is 17, and most sorters and matchers are in their early 20's.
Earlier in the year I traveled with author Stephen Bloom to the same area where Amanda shot that photo (akoya producing areas). Stephen interviewed several women working at a few factories. One was a student, another one was working until the summer when she planned to get married, and another was working toward opening her own jewelry business. They were all very ambitious, actually.
The rooms where they work are very temperature controlled, unlike other places in the factory. The room itself is not too bright, but the light under which they work is intense. Some factories utilize natural indirect light as well for matching, and all use it for grading.
The hours are very similar to what we would expect here, except lunch breaks are often two hours long, as they go home for lunch. This is not the case in freshwater pearl factories which employ a much larger number of worker. These usually all have an on-site cafeteria. |