That’s an interesting take on the US. My quality of life and standard of living improved drastically when I moved to Taiwan. But I guess that will depend on which city you come from in the US, and which city you move to in Taiwan.
Ever since I moved to Taiwan I feel like I’ve been on permanent vacation/semi-retirement.
Unless you are making shitloads of money, it is all about experience in your 20s. Taiwan, for me, in high tech and government, was ideal for this decades ago. However, considering pensions, career growth, etc., unless you are a lawyer, business owner, etc., it is about staying the right amount of time. The salary is great for Taiwan.
Yah, anything over NT$100k a month is pure savings in Taiwan. I mean, you’d have to have a pretty ridiculous lifestyle if that wasn’t covering everything outside of central Taipei. Live very comfortably, and still put US$3-4k away. In your 20s? Trying to find the rub. Tax will be likely lower than most Western countries, too.
Has the op said he’s on his 20’s? I’ve missed that.
Doesn’t seem like someone in their 20’s, and I seem to remember them being a woman from a previous thread.
Yeah, I think it’s a chain misunderstanding xD
He is not in his 20s And you can make and save very good money in Taiwan these days , just look at that salary survey. My rate of tax compared to my home country means I would have to be on mega money over there to get anywhere close (after all the tax deductions,all legal). Then you got cheap healthcare and housing and transport, living is very easy.
When I briefly worked in ITRI they didn’t offer me such a nice package, 25 days leave would be pretty exceptional I would have thought. Has somebody offered 25 days? I think its normal to get a 6% lao bao state pension contribution. Those institutions do have pensions against years served but they often tried to not give them to foreigners who worked in them. Disgraceful but this is what they do.
They and the unis here do have excellent industrial collaboration, a little unfortunately they were almost all Taiwanese companies. Thats ok for semicon industry I guess or if you wanted to have your own business in future and get to know contractors.
No, that’s just when Chewy was here
He introduced some confusion here:
Then the next poster assumed that was a fact.
I was talking about a salary of $250K+ USD/year (at least 3 times the current offer) in the US vs. $3M NTD/year in Taiwan…
Standard of living is easy to measure: just go to Numbeo, and do a cost-of-living comparison. Keep in mind that the Numbeo numbers are after-tax. I’d use 20% tax rate for Taiwan for that income.
Quality-of-life is very personal, but outside of Taiwan being safer (except for traffic and China) than the major cities in the US, I cannot think of many advantages that Taiwan has over the US in terms of quality-of-life. Healthcare costs in the US would not be something that a highly compensated professional has to worry about (They will have employer-sponsored insurance). On the other hand, you cannot escape shoddy construction, noise pollution, air pollution, traffic dangers, food safety concerns, etc. in Taiwan. Also, Taipei (the only city in Taiwan on the list) ranks 111th on the Numbeo Quality of Life index, whereas 38 US cities rank higher…
Congrats!!!
I agree that this is what your decision should be about. Do you want to live in Taiwan? Great offer!
If not, then not.
It’s usually automatic. But in this case, I think it’s sensible to ask for a clear explanation before you take the position.
Guy
I remember my first job offer in Taiwan. 620 an hour (I played hardball and got them up from 600). No paid vacation, no paid sickleave, no paid typhoon days. But, I was happy with what I had.
if he is on ARC, he might not be eligible for some things, definitely need to ask.
That’s funny you mention those. Those are all the very things I personally couldn’t escape back home in Boston, but have vastly improved since I moved to Kaohsiung. Not to mention the deadly winter storms. Never again.
In any case, I don’t know how much trust I can personally place in any guide that places Taipei above Kaohsiung in terms of quality of life. I’m literally living in a tropical paradise down here, with a similar climate as Honolulu, and a 10-minute walk to two different beaches.
Good to know. I’ll raise the matter with the boss.
I’m a guy, don’t want to specify age but of the age when parents are nagging me to get married already and stop fooling around.
Will do.
I remember my first job…I walked one hour each way, every day to work because I was fresh out of uni and couldn’t afford a car yet. This was in snow, sleet, rain, sun, etc. Back then I too was happy with what I had.
I’m not ungrateful for what, in hindsight with insight from the other replies here, isn’t really a bad offer. I wanted to know whether it was a fair offer given that my only reference point is salaries for equivalent positions in the world’s tech R&D leader (USA)
What do you consider ‘highly compensated’? For what I consider highly compensated, it’s still a concern in the US, even with employer sponsored insurance. Employer sponsored insurance doesn’t mean health care costs are low.
Yes, it’s expensive, but a deductible of a couple thousand dollars, and up to $10K maximum out-of-pocket won’t bankrupt someone who makes $250K+/year.
“Won’t bankrupt someone” is a very different metric than “not be something…to worry about.”