unions

It's an underdeveloped country, everything is imported so prices are much higher than what you'd expect. The government is corrupt, there is no free public healthcare or education.

You simply can not sustain a family without having one of your family members in a foreign country as the breadwinner. If you can't go abroad, it's grueling poverty for you, good luck caring for your sick parents or sending your kids to school. Even our nation's leaders send their children abroad for studies/job.

Yeah, the USD equivalent doesn't mean much if your nation actually has something to offer in exchange for your low wages, but that is definetly not the case everywhere.

That's why "Why would anyone ever work over 60 hours?" first seemed like a sarcastic comment to me.

Everywhere isn't europe or america guys