31% of Taiwanese earn less than NT$30,000; 10% earn over NT$61,000 per month

[tando]

@Brianjones

It’s hard to find stats for Manila average earnings. Taipei is about 40 to 50k per month. Manila seems to be roughly 9-15k per month. So there’s a massive gap between the 'middle classes '.

not regional, but some national stats are here, and we can make some guess on stats for Manila.
https://psa.gov.ph/content/2016-occupational-wages-survey-ows

@Caliboy90

It’s not that uncommon to see white-collar workers make $1,000 per month even in countries like the Philippines

uncommon is a subjective word, but this claim can be true, depending on what you mean by “uncommon”.

National median wage for workers in Philippines was ~7.5k NTD, but more than 12% of workers got more than 15k NTD in 2016, and mean wages of some kinds of occupations are close to or above 30k NTD. So, more than 30k NTD in Manila is not as common as in Taipei, but may not be as uncommon as 300k NTD in Taipei.