Here's an Idea, Premier "Dolt" Chen

[PigBloodCake]

http://www.taiwannews.com.tw/etn/news_content.php?id=1887716

"Taipei, April 6 (CNA) The government has a series of measures aimed at developing and retaining talent, Premier Sean Chen said Friday, in response to a comment by a Singaporean high-level official who cited Taiwan as an example of a country facing a serious brain drain problem. "We have been aware of the situation (of brain drain in Taiwan)," Chen said, adding that the Cabinet has introduced measures to address the problem."

How about looking into the salary structure offered by private enterprises, Premier "Dolt" Chen?

[Feiren]

And what do you suggest?

That he somehow force private enterprises to offer higher salaries?

[PigBloodCake]

And what do you suggest?

That he somehow force private enterprises to offer higher salaries?

Hahaha....that's a good one

Did you know that the govt, through the Department of Industrial Technology (MoEA), offers grants to companies to set up shops in the 'wan?

Well, perhaps they can use that channel to somehow **force** the private enterprises to offer higher salaries to professionals.

Currently, do they enforce that? Ummm......the answer is an emphatic NO (I should know....I'm currently working in one where a software engineering professional is making $40k/mo...and this is an MNC to boot).

EDIT: 2nd paragraph should read: ..... **force** the private enterprises that are currently accepting the grants from DoIT to offer higher salaries to professionals.

[headhonchoII]

Well they can 'force' higher pay for professionals if they want to. It's usually done by unions in the Western world though or some type of collective bargaining agreement. The problem in Taiwan is salaries are pathethic across the board.

Pilots, doctors, professors, teachers...most of their pay is crap compared to neighbouring countries. So far what has made that acceptable is the real attachment of Taiwanese to their homeland and lack of options for Chinese native speakers along with low cost of living in Taiwan. The opening up of Asia and China has really made it easier for talented Taiwanese to move overseas. Inflation is now rearing it's head in Taiwan. Probably the biggest factor was the constant refrain from Taiwanese employers, if you don't like it we can go to China and hire people there. Guess what...China is starting to suffer from labour shortages and the supply of skilled and experienced professionals is.

If the pay doesn't go up directly the government can use other measures to increase salaried income. Reduce the tax burden on salaries and increase on assets. Change the NHI premiums to be rated fairly on total assets. Change the property tax to be based on real value. Give more tax breaks and childrens benefits to working people. Salaried workers contribute 70% of the revenue generated in Taiwan. I believe it is around 20% in Hong Kong!

A few years ago the government adjusted the corporate tax rate down around 3%. Why do workers get not get a tax break?

Increasing the minimum wage is also a useful factor and since Taiwan's minimum wage is still pretty low I can't see it having a huge effect on the export economy (alon
g with minimum wages rapidly increasing in other countries in the region).

[headhonchoII]

And what do you suggest?

That he somehow force private enterprises to offer higher salaries?

Hahaha....that's a good one

Did you know that the govt, through the Department of Industrial Technology (MoEA), offers grants to companies to set up shops in the 'wan?

Well, perhaps they can use that channel to somehow **force** the private enterprises to offer higher salaries to professionals.

Currently, do they enforce that? Ummm......the answer is an emphatic NO (I should know....I'm currently working in one where a software engineering professional is making $40k/mo...and this is an MNC to boot).

EDIT: 2nd paragraph should read: ..... **force** the private enterprises that are currently accepting the grants from DoIT to offer higher salaries to professionals.

Yes, an interesting fact is that many MNCs in Taiwan pay their staff poorly. They just benchmark the rate of pay to local companies. So interestingly if local companies paid more then the MNCs would pay more.

The best way to increase the pay in Taiwan is to diversify the economy like Singapore has.
Singapore has a large manufacturing base, financial services, petrochemical refining, regional service office base, tourism, regional transport hub and now casinos and entertainment.

Taiwan has...electronics and petro refinining along with a bunch of manufacturing SMEs. So if Taiwan could promote more auto manufacturing, financial services, airports, entertainment options including casinos, tourism (happening already) but upgrade the ports to attract cruiseliners , more branded multinationals such as HTC with HQ here, that would help a lot.

A better and more international living environment would also attract foreigners to base their businesses here.

[cjc444]

I work for one of those MNC's and during this past year we opened our first Asian office in Taiwan. Well when it came time to hire local staff I had a long sit down with our CEO over salaries. My suggestion was to bump up the comparative, local salaries by about 20% and our staff would be ecstatic. However, his thoughts on the matter were we are a very profitable company so why not pay the local staff what their counterparts in Boston make, especially considering that they work much harder. So now I have about 10 extremely happy employees making the same amount as their equals back at HQ in Boston. My assistant, who is absolutely amazing and deserving of every penny brings home 165k TWD/month.

And this is where is gets really fucked. The Monday before last she came in very upset and upon further questioning I found out that her bank, Citibank had frozen her account. Their reason was that it is impossible for a 28 year old girl (who graduated from the top university in Taiwan) to make more money than they do and froze her account due to suspicious activity. So I had to take a half day off to go berate the damn sexist, hillbilly branch manager and proceeded to have her close her account as well as mine and took her to MegaBank where the service is superior. Anyway, I seriously have no clue how this island can keep up with these types of fuckers running the show. Such a wonderful place in many ways, but anytime I think about how the work force is treated I lose all respect I might have otherwise.

[Okami]

I think what some fail to see is that the current leadership doesn't wasn't to diversify. They just want to be like China because it's a strong country. Singapore knows that if they didn't get their act together they'd be like Malaysia and no one there wanted that. Taiwan doesn't see becoming like China to be a bad thing or even to be like Japan.

They want nice stable govt jobs that can easily lord their power over the peasants along with big face companies and industries.

The bank didn't care she was making that much money, they cared that the govt officials would come breathing down their necks if they didn't do something about it.

[headhonchoII]

All I can say is, your CEO is very unusual. Lucky you.

[TheGingerMan]

I work for one of those MNC's and during this past year we opened our first Asian office in Taiwan. Well when it came time to hire local staff I had a long sit down with our CEO over salaries. My suggestion was to bump up the comparative, local salaries by about 20% and our staff would be ecstatic. However, his thoughts on the matter were we are a very profitable company so why not pay the local staff what their counterparts in Boston make, especially considering that they work much harder. So now I have about 10 extremely happy employees making the same amount as their equals back at HQ in Boston. My assistant, who is absolutely amazing and deserving of every penny brings home 165k TWD/month.

And this is where is gets really fucked. The Monday before last she came in very upset and upon further questioning I found out that her bank, Citibank had frozen her account. Their reason was that it is impossible for a 28 year old girl (who graduated from the top university in Taiwan) to make more money than they do and froze her account due to suspicious activity. So I had to take a half day off to go berate the damn sexist, hillbilly branch manager and proceeded to have her close her account as well as mine and took her to MegaBank where the service is superior. Anyway, I seriously have no clue how this island can keep up with these types of fuckers running the show. Such a wonderful place in many ways, but anytime I think about how the work force is treated I lose all respect I might have otherwise.

Well done on the smackdown on Citibank.

There was a story the other day about how Hon Hai decided to "significantly" raise wages for their Taiwanese workers, yet haven't decided on the actual size of the increase.
http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-201 ... 00170.html

And the CP has a rather hopeful angle that others will jump on board.

“Hon Hai Precision is a local business leader. I think its move will serve as a strong indicator to the business sector,” Mirae Asset Management analyst Arch Shih said.

Hon Hai Precision Chairman Terry Gou said in a TV interview a day earlier that his company is reviewing the pay scale for its employees in Taiwan as the public is faced with a rising cost of living since the government removed a mechanism to partially freeze domestic fuel prices.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/business/gl ... ms-may.htm

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Food for thought:

“The government, which attaches great importance to the cultivation of the nation’s human resources, has introduced a program to nurture local professionals and recruit high-level specialists from abroad,” Yang said.

Launched Aug. 15, 2011, the initiative seeks to develop sufficient numbers of quality employees, train personnel for emerging and priority industries, globalize the country’s workforce, enhance the performance of civil servants and strengthen alliances between academia and industry. A budget of NT$60 billion (US$2.03 billion) will be allocated toward the plan by 2013.

Yang said the government is supporting the program with a series of complementary deregulations and incentives targeting foreign professionals. These include increasing the salary cap on overseas specialists working at government-funded organizations, and allowing foreign residents to apply for the same six-year driver’s licenses as ROC nationals.

http://www.taiwantoday.tw/ct.asp?xItem= ... ctNode=445

Today's China Post has a translator position at MOEA, starting salary 40K. It goes up with seniority, though, guys.

The ones we have to convince of raising salaries are like Tai-Da's dean, who said his students were asking for too much money.

As to inflation, not looking good. Prices going up in every field, from breakfast meals to groceries, services, utilities... Brace your wallets.