Cash counter who pays a price for errors

They say money doesn't always bring happiness and that is especially when your job is to count it.

"We have to deal with more than 1,600 bags of change that weigh 1.25 tons each day, and even more during holidays," says Xie Tinglu, a dispatcher working at the cashier center of Chongqing Electric Car Company.

This means each of the 27 female workers at the center counts tens of thousands of banknotes and 50 kilograms of coins at least twice a day, with their counting double checked by machines. An error rate higher than 0.01 percent incurs a fine deducted from their meager 2,000 yuan ($321) monthly salary.

"The record for the fastest bill counter is 206 banknotes in one minute," said Ge Hong, a female bill counter at the center.

Most of the female workers used to work as conductors on public buses and became money counters after the introduction of automated machines.

Dozens of workers count money together in a cacophony of noise at the cashier center of Chongqing Electric Car Company in Chongqing, Southwest China, on April 30, 2012. [Photo/CFP]