Monday, July 07, 2008

A Bleak Outlook for College Grads in Taiwan

I came across an article a few weeks back that shocked me. I had no idea that pay-rates for college grads were so low.

Here is a link to the article in the China Post:
Pay for college graduate first job seekers drops

The figures in the article seem awfully low.

NT$26,000 a month for college grads, master's degrees about $31,000??? Wow, that seems crazy low. Average pay has dropped over 5% in the past year. The $26000 figure works out to be about US$5/hour for a forty-hour work week. I know that the cost of living in Taiwan is considerably lower than in the U.S., but this is ridiculous.

The report also states that unemployment among college grads is at an all-time high, 4.5%.

How can anyone with even a tenuous grasp on economics be satisfied with such a pittance?

Is the fear of unemployment so potent that young people will work for poverty-level wages?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

According to the article it's per month not year. That's little over 1,000 dollars a month for a master's degree. That's crazy! But Taiwan's taxes are low (if they even tax. Never did when I was there) so that's not too bad.