Appallingly Low Salaries: Part Deux

Work Working in Taiwan
1

So… seeing that Lotus Blossom’s thread has been inundated, I thought I’d start another one here, but not about English teaching. I’ll be discussing REGULAR WORK with all you folks out there that have a “regular job.”

What I’m doing now (editor of English) is most definitely appallingly low pay compared to an English teacher. In fact, I appreciate English teaching so much more now. Over here, I have to come into the office early in the morning (09:30) and I leave at 18:00… and my 30-minute lunch break is unpaid work time. That means, if I want to eat lunch, I have to work 42.5 hrs per week, 5 days a week. For most of my co-workers, they come in for 7.5 hrs a day, 6 days a week… and our pay is mostly around the $40,000/month mark.

Sure, that’s enough to survive upon if you plan to rent your living quarters and eat from roadside stalls for 15 years until you finally have enough of a “nest egg” for some investment purposes. Let’s say $40,000 salary MINUS $15,000 rent in Taipei City/County (incl. utilities, etc.) MINUS $5,000 food MINUS $5,000 other life expenses… you are left with a grand total of $15,000. That’s a grand $500 USD, which allows you to buy a little more than ONE share of GOOG, not including commission, per month. Whoop-de-doo.

One of my co-workers plans to move to Canada with his wife in a few years’ time, and I asked him if he’s saving for a home in Canada. Nope, he ain’t, because that’s impossible on his wages (not sure if his wife works, to be honest). But let’s say she does… then maybe they could save $20,000 per month.

People say that what matters is the difference between your income and outgo, not the absolute, and I agree, because of course the difference is what turns into absolute savings/investment… but c’mon, how can people live on this?!

For myself, I supplement this “income” with teaching every night of the week and work on weekends. Yeah, so basically, I’m little better than a slave.

How about you folks?

2

So why not jump back into the teaching game?

3

Oh… I am… I am!

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" I have to come into the office early in the morning (09:30) and I leave at 18:00… and my 30-minute lunch break is unpaid work time."

Welcome to the real world.
And 0930 is definitely not early to be going to work.

5

Damn straight! Them Engrish teachers have it easy, I tell you.

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Agreed, 9:30 is certainly not early, that’s sleeping in! So what is it you do Sandman?

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I’m a hack. Get paid a pittance for it, too.

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9:30, 9:30 i haven’t had to be in that late since… Oh actually only 4 months when I used to work 11-19 (no break). Now I work from 8:15 > 18:10 with an hours break for less money but for a much better company and more future prospects.

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Working from 8.00am to 6.30pm or 7.00pm or later. Salary that of a junior engineer back home (comparing after tax), of course less social standards. However, I am not Junior engineer. But with prices going crazy back home in Germanyland the economic situation is not really bad, esp. as wife makes more than me.

But I miss that part of life between coming home and sleeping… :s

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9 to 5ish sounds pretty good to me… I’d love to be home every evening just to have time to cook for myself more often. I’m so sick of lunch boxes…

T.

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While I appreciate your situation, and agree it’s no good, remember Life Lesson #362 a. - You’ll never get rich working for someone else…

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Unless you’re a CEO for a multi-national corporation.

Ya know, I just read where the CEO’s of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae earn US$30 million… Not bad, ay?

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What a load of baloney, it’s just you’ll never get rich working for someone else in Taiwan! Considering about 90% of business ventures fail, you are most likely to get poor trying to work for yourself. In my home country my family have a city house house and a holiday/country house and we are still not considered rich. Why be rich (the top 5% of the income curve) most people just want to live a comfortable life, don’t get a heart attack at 50, retire and go golfing everyday!

The salaries in Taiwan are very low pretty much across the board, which results in an English teacher’s salary looking good here. I agree with the OP you couldn’t save a lot even if you are saving a bit every month and living like a monk. It’s easier if you are a working couple and both foreigners, quite a few foreigners marry richer women who make more money here, you guys know who you are, living the easy life. However most women in Taiwan make about 30,000-35,000 mth salary and that is a big drag on earnings for couples and families also and it makes it even less viable to save.

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You can get handsomely rich from working for a salary in Taiwan, as long as you pick your industry, your job and company rather carefully.

HG

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I agree that you’ll never get rich working for someone else, actually. Sure, you could be CEO of Disney or whatever… but how long would it take you to get there starting out as a person born into a middle-class family!!! How long!!!

Now, who are these foreigners that marry richer women?! What are their names and where do they live?! I know there’s one guy who occasionally appears on TV and his wife is a TV host - but where are the others?

Anyway, who wants to live in the shadow of their wife? Actually… that might be cool for a while…

Okay, maybe I don’t get to work as early as some of you other folks… but in stating the 09:30 start and 18:00 finish (which equals about $38,000 per month for now), I didn’t mention the teaching of adults which I do afterward, which goes from around 19:00 to 21:30 every weeknight! (Or did I?) And I work on Saturdays and Sundays for about 3-5 hours. Okay, so that’s an approx. $70,000 income per month. Still… that’s only $2,333 USD per month and $28,000 a year!

C’mon… if I only worked the day job, that would be $15,200 a year… I would be financially better off living at my parents’ home (or renting someone’s basement) in Toronto and flipping burgers at McDonald’s!

But yeah… the salaries ARE pretty low across the board. However, I did read an article two weeks ago that stated the average income for a Taipeinese is $49,700 per month, whereas Taichung and Kaohsiung are $36,700 or something. It seems like Kaohsiungites and Taichungese get the better deal… since housing in those two places could cost around $5,000 per month, whereas the Taipei equivalent would cost $15,000, or let’s even say the Taipei County equivalent of $10,000. And then the take-out food in those non-Taipei places is MUCH cheaper.

What a load of baloney, it’s just you’ll never get rich working for someone else in Taiwan! Considering about 90% of business ventures fail, you are most likely to get poor trying to work for yourself. In my home country my family have a city house house and a holiday/country house and we are still not considered rich. Why be rich (the top 5% of the income curve) most people just want to live a comfortable life, don’t get a heart attack at 50, retire and go golfing everyday!

The salaries in Taiwan are very low pretty much across the board, which results in an English teacher’s salary looking good here. I agree with the OP you couldn’t save a lot even if you are saving a bit every month and living like a monk. It’s easier if you are a working couple and both foreigners, quite a few foreigners marry richer women who make more money here, you guys know who you are, living the easy life. However most women in Taiwan make about 30,000-35,000 mth salary and that is a big drag on earnings for couples and families also and it makes it even less viable to save.[/quote]

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now why does marrying a woman who earns more than you mean you will be living in her shadow? what kind of attitude is that? that is the attitude of one who equates their position in life with their income. that is the attitude of one who is solely interested ion judging their merit and that of others, i dare say, by the bankroll.

now, my wife earns more than i do, considerably more, but neither of us live in each other’s shadow, we bask in each other’s radiance. we both enjoy our lives, we both make the most of our happy situation, we share our money equally anyway, and there is no shadow to be seen.

seems to me that the man who cares about the relative earning potential of his wife is either not a confident man, deep down inside, or is one who can only gauge his own worth by the dollars he makes (which may be the same thing) that’s a sad situation: life is not about money, life is about living.

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[quote=“urodacus”]life is not about money, life is about living.[/quote]I agree, but money sure makes living easier… I don’t care what anyone says.

T.

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Someone above claimed that there are women with high salaries. What are these professions? From what I can tell during my 1-month stay in Taipei (and a few days in Kaoshiung), there are not many such high-salary jobs available for women. For comparison, about half of the law and med students in America are female (businessweek.com/magazine/co … _mz001.htm). The presence of massive companies in America also seems to result in other high-paying jobs for women (ie, management consulting, accounting/auditing) that are not as easy to come across in Taiwan.

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dunno, my old lady does alright like…

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Accounting and other finance management jobs, by the look of the management chart in my office. Out of the 250 odd people in my department, at least 70% are women and at least 60% of them are making significantly more than I am. My manager is a woman, my two directors are women, my company partner is a woman, and almost all the assistant managers and managers above me are women.