I see this eating out, super busy eateries and no staff. Do you see it in the north too or just South regional
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The staff problem has been there for years, even before the plague. It has become even more obvious as the population crunch means less students available for part time.
The salaries are not attractive, not to say sustainable. People have options or prefer to stay home. Having to quit to get a vacation does not lead to a steadfast working environment. Hiring foreign workers on slave pay does not help either, it is not sustainable, just a band-aid. And it brings the economy lower and lower.
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Why does it not help? Why isn’t it sustainable?
For the same reason all those factories using foreign workers as a crutch go down: it is a symptom of bad management. And a dying economy.
When this is done, there is no circulation of goods/earnings. The money becomes stuck at the top.
The services or goods provided must have a recipient, a market. If that market cannot afford the product, well, you cannot sell it. If you keep lowering costs, you lose quality. Foreign labor is based on a disposable labor scheme. You cannot keep it or train them. They cannot interact with the local markets. And the people they replaced can’t buy stuff, interact with the economy. This kills the system.
This is a rough summary but basically the race to the bottom only prolongs the agony.
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I predicted this last year,and foreign tourists still haven’t even flooded back yet!
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Ok 25-30k sucks ass but it’s hardly “slave pay”. It’s way more than any of them can make back home.
Main problems are language, abusive management culture and lack of viable path to citizenship.
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No one thinks that’s a viable path long term but there’s nothing wrong with squeezing out a decade or more from those factories. And it has nothing to do with a dying economy, it’s actually a sign of wealth. The country has become too rich for that kind of manufacturing to make sense.
I really do not know what you’re talking about. Lack of workers indicates strong demand and a good economy.
Who says they can’t buy stuff?
Taiwan passed new laws to put them on a path to residency.
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Would you tell someone in Pingtung they can’t go to work in Taipei because “salaries aren’t attractive”? Like you get to decide for them what’s attractive?
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Here in Southern Taiwan most restaurants do not tourists, too busy as it is. (TV news had videos)
Not like the islands that need tourist, and get bad ones like this
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In a society getting older and older could mean economy collapse.
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It will be a problem in the long run. Because we can’t get enough migrants to replace everyone. But it’s not an indicator of current economic health.
people are picky and dont want to work hard for low pay, the economically sound move would be to incentivize workers by raising salaries. However the same people are also outraged if they need to pay 5nt more for their danbing… so business owners dare not raise prices.
i see it also in business, TW companies have no problem spending thousands of USD overseas, but god forbid a local vendor raises their price, they will cry murder.
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Most foreign workers don’t receive that amount. First if all, minimum pay does not reach 30k for them. Second, first year pay and most of the rest goes to intermediaries who “oversee” their getting a job, performance, etc.
Then you have the whole list of illegal or semi legal conditions, from not being able to keep their passport or go out freely to buying only at company store, being maltreated by cops, not being able to switch employees even under bad conditions, etc
But yeah, better than home. S/
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worse when as foreign students they work for low wages for cafe work, saw some “students” working at Fast food. I remember seeing on news some bad schools where foreign students were labor not students. As for other foreign agents, yes they pay a lot to el bandido (agents) so nett pay is low.
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strawberry , bosses complain about them
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Don’t know the actual stats but that hasn’t been my anecdotal experience. Never met a factory worker that makes less than 25k. They also had dorm and food provided for free.
The illegal workers is a separate issue. They exist everywhere. Almost all students from third world countries I met in Canada worked illegally for peanuts and a lot of them were verbally abused. This is sadly a common problem. At least in Taiwan they can make a relative shit ton at buxibans.
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Just saw and commented on another thread about a pizza restaurant whose owner works overtime with customers complaining about not getting their orders.
Like seriously, 40k seems attractive but most Taiwanese can work office jobs for that much and work less hours and actually have vacation and end of year bonuses. Would you want to work 12 hours a day, 6 days a week for 40k and zero vacation time? Especially when you have to quit your job to get more than 2 weeks off…
There isn’t any such thing as a labor shortage, only that employers refuse to pay what the market demands for the work.
Like I probably wouldn’t even mind working walmart type jobs in Taiwan if I got paid 300 an hour, and gets certain number of paid time off per year. I never recall getting paid time off in Taiwan.
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I’m talking legal workers. Those are the ones being abused. On paper, they might make 25k. But the intermediaries get the lions’ share.
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i think you exaggerate how much a waiter in a pizzeria works… they work normal hours.