It’s surprising how low the tech salaries are in Taiwan vs places like US and mainland China, even though all the hardware chips come from Taiwan.
Now for foreign tech workers/leaders w a family it’s even crazier. It’s not like Taiwan is cheaper for a foreigner that wants their kids/spouse to join him/her. American schools are expensive in Taiwan vs US, Nannies (for kids)/Taxis are cheaper in China, (food costs maybe similar), and Taipei rivals NY, SF, SEA and Beijing and Shanghai in cost of a house. Taxes are lower than California and China but it’s not considered low.
So, my question is: 1) why are tech salaries so low in Taiwan with its success in semiconductors? 2) As a result it’s so hard to attract strong foreign workers/leadership with these salary restrictions. Are there strategies to improve this with potential employers?
Taiwan’s only advantage is low prices which means low wages. It took the lead in semiconductor manufacturing because it was cheaper, not better, and its success now is due to the fact that it can squeeze out even more due to its greater experience.
China does not pay more at all. They only pay more to import tech, local wages are not that high. My current company pays half in Chengdu and Zhongzheng and 20 percent less in Shenzhen, compared to Hsinchu.
For high tech folks cuz china has alibaba, tencent, baidu, etc… they do pay much higher wages than Taiwan. I know all the US tech companies pay higher in China than a Taiwan too. So maybe for low end work that’s the case, but for high end I know this not to be the case.
The high earning managment positions are held by Taiwanese mostly, with the big stock options, I’m guessing that’s part of it. Language and cultural barrier is a real issue here.
That might be true, especially for foreign employees, because they have a greater need for the foreign talent, and also outside of the money there are fewer and fewer reasons to go there…
It’s certainly partially about scale too. China is large and overall has more $ for the top folks.
I’d love to see more growth from Taiwan in terms of pay. That would improve birth issue ($ wise), bring more brain trust and high skilled immigration to Taiwan which would also help combat the low birth issues.
I find many Taiwan kids move to the US or China to get more opportunities. I’d rather see more retention from that perspective.
I suspect it’s less because of this but more because there’s not great rivalry like US or mainland China for talent. Once one raises pay the rest tend to follow…. Like now US has layoffs, and the rest follow.
Taiwanese companies are stingy, they see that enough local engineers are content with low wages, hence no incentives to pay more. Few companies are willing to pay for a foreigner, since they offer little added value here. The ones that are really in demand get nice salary packages .
the market is quite competitive, and will be driven by TW workers, not foreigners. if masses of TW engineers move to silicone valley , salaries here will go up too.
I’m eating biandang because I realize that biandang is a lot cheaper than me buying all the vegetables, cooking it myself, and then doing all the cleanup, not to mention risk of food going bad because I waited a bit too long to cook it.
I can’t make a biandang for 70-80nt. The meat alone costs that much at PX mart.
but hardware<software pay everywhere (not sure about Taiwan though).