Wages for skilled work in Taiwan

Work Working in Taiwan
1

Any idea what is it with skilled work in Taiwan?

Engineers here make about 40,000 on average, but retail worker makes only slightly less (around 33,000) if working full time.

Is there a reason why all jobs, regardless of skill level required, pays mostly the same in Taiwan?

Even doctors only get marginally more than an engineer in Taiwan. Seems software engineers get the most (around 60k) but so do doctors.

So then what’s the point of going to medical school, college, trade schools when in the end you’d only make marginally more than a retail worker or unskilled farm work?

2

Your averages (if they’re accurate and I’m not sure they are) don’t tell you the whole story.

The upper bounds of what’s possible income-wise for an experienced, high-performing engineer, doctor, etc. are much, much higher than the upper bounds of what’s possible income-wise for a retail or farm worker.

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3

Where did you get your numbers from as doctors start on more than that. More like 85,000.

Plus, these are presumably starting salaries. They will increase.

4

Engineers earn more than that .

5

Can imagine there’s an oversupply at the graduate level since everyone’s got a bachelor’s

6

I dont think these are correct,
Doctors(GP) Make 140k
A heart Surgeon makes about 500k/month
Plastic Surgeon with own business can make over 1 million NTD a month
Software Engineers start around 90-120+

But having said that, the high bracket income taxes here are higher than US Federal Income Tax

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7

I only get the number from friends who works here. So I don’t even know how accurate it is, Taiwanese hate discussing salaries like it’s top secret classified military stuff.

But based on how Taiwanese penny pinches over the smallest of amount, it just makes me think that they all make very little.

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8

“The average doctor salary in Taiwan is NT$3,899,915 or an equivalent hourly rate of NT$1,875. In addition, they earn an average bonus of NT$160,676. Salary estimates based on salary survey data collected directly from employers and anonymous employees in Taiwan. An entry level doctor (1-3 years of experience) earns an average salary of NT$2,641,335. On the other end, a senior level doctor (8+ years of experience) earns an average salary of NT$5,059,906.”

https://www.salaryexpert.com/salary/job/doctor/taiwan

Higher for OB’s: https://www.erieri.com/salary/job/physician-obstetrician/taiwan

Average engineer salaries for 2020: http://www.salaryexplorer.com/salary-survey.php?loc=212&loctype=1&job=22&jobtype=1

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9

Nevermind.

10

Average of ~45k employed doctors is about 160k/month.

Average of ~30k employed fulltime mechanical engineers is about 110k/month.

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11

This is more accurate

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12

Maybe not much differences between employed mechanics and retail workers, but big differences between mechanical engineers and them.

13

It this true? Could have fooled me considering how often Taiwanese acquaintances and complete strangers alike would ask me what my salary was. I assumed it must not be a big deal to discuss it openly in their culture.

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14

Your numbers look wrong. Even fresh college graduate SWEs are making upto 100k per month at local companies. I would imagine the average to be closer to 100k since most SWEs would have more experience. In software especially, there are a ton of different skillsets and a lot of room for salary negotiation if you are an expert and impress in your interviews.

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15

Where do your friends get such inaccurate numbers?

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16

I don’t think these numbers are accurate for Taiwan usually.

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17

You might be right.

Perhaps those surveys suffer from sampling bias. Glassdoor also had high (for Taiwan) figures if I correctly recall. But again maybe a sampling bias. Ie., perhaps those with higher salaries tended to responded more than lower ones, or the company sampling methodology was inadequate. (I did not bother to reconcile… just lazily and uncritically reported from google.)

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18

Friend is a doctor early in their career with no overtime clinic hours. This sounds about right in terms of salary.

19

Curious what kind of doctor?
I know 3 doctors, one being my Security front desks son who works at the Tri Service Hospital in Neihu as a GP his salary is 160,000 NTD a month.

The highest salary I heard of was a heart surgeon salary is NT 500,000 a month

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20

Are local SWE’s really starting fresh out of school at 100k? Not saying I don’t believe you, but when I check local job boards for SWE positions I’m not seeing salaries anywhere near that at the entry-level. Where are these jobs?

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