The big changes headed to Foxconn's factories have sparked concern and confusion among a number of parties. But if Foxconn stays true to its agreements, the industry may see some improvement.

The Fair Labor Association announced yesterday that Foxconn will improve a variety of labor conditions in its Chinese gadget plants. But one of the changes, with a wide set of potential implications for workers, device manufacturers, and electronics purchasers alike, are how wages and overtime are being adjusted.

Workers will only be allowed to work a maximum of 49 hours per week, including overtime, and monthly overtime hours will be reduced from a maximum of 80 to only 36. Foxconn will also go on a hiring spree to expand the ranks of its 1.2 million employees to ensure these plans are reasonable to achieve. Although this sounds good to those of us who are concerned about their well-being, some workers aren't so jazzed about the idea.

"A lot of us are unhappy with this," Chen Yamei, a 25-year-old Foxconn worker told Reuters. "We think that 60 hours of overtime a month would be reasonable and that 36 hours would be too little." Another Foxconn employee, 23-year-old Wu, said, "We are worried we will have less money to spend. Of course, if we work less overtime, it would mean less money."

In this case, it looks like Foxconn's plans to be in accordance with FLA guidelines need to be more effectively relayed to employees. Foxconn is working on "a compensation package that protects workers from losing income due to reduced overtime." Fourteen percent of workers weren't adequately compensated for their overtime in the past, so this should be an improvement both for workers' quality of life, and the pay received.

Another issue relating to this: costs of manufacturing the product, which affect company bottom lines, and seem like they could potentially raise the price of our gadget obsessions.

IHS iSuppli CFA Tom Dinges says there's nothing to worry about on this front.

"The cost they’re going to pay to manufacture products is going to go up, but that's only factory and labor costs," Dinges told Wired. "Labor is only a small percentage of the total cost of a product."

Dinges illustrated an example for us: If a cellphone costs $229, that's the price it's going to be. If labor costs go up and everything else stays constant, it may cost $1 more to make each cellphone, but it's not going to change that $229 retail price tag. The manufacturer just has to eat that tiny decrease in profits.

And what's going on at Foxconn right now isn't anything new. "The cost of labor has been going up 15 to 20 percent each year for the past five years or so," Dinges said. In some areas, workers may be paid twice what they were just a few years back. With that in mind, has the cost of the iPhone gone up? Nope. With a few exceptions (the first iPhone and the 3GS), a new entry-level iPhone is always $200 on contract, $650 off.

Although increasing labor costs has a low effect on margins – especially if the cost of parts, or shipping, or other production processes decrease – there could be a few negatives to come out of this.

"We may see a reduction in the diversity of products offered or a reduction in quality," Paul Martyn vice president of Supply Strategy at BravoSolution told Reuters. "We may see more defects as a result of changes in some of these sectors like apparel and toys."

But overall, what's being heavily publicized with Apple and Foxconn is an issue that's been evolving for years, following the steps of what happened with the clothing industry in the '90s.

So perhaps the biggest effect of Foxconn's news falls on socially conscious consumers, ones who've been petitioning Apple to "think different" when it comes to how its products are made.

"I can feel good about using my iPhone and other Apple products in the future," Mark Shields, creator of a widely supported Change.org petition inspired by negative reports of conditions at Foxconn. "I can know they're made humanely. And that’s great."