Taiwan Today

Average salaries for holders of bachelor’s and master’s degrees dropped in 2009, according to the 1111 Job Bank’s survey released Feb. 8. The average monthly pay for a person with a master’s was NT$38,939 (US$1,215), down 9.5 percent from NT$43,024 in 2008, or NT$4,085, while the starting salary for a university graduate averaged NT$27,150, compared to NT$28,861 the year before, a reduction of over NT$1,000, or 5.93 percent. At the same time, the latest figures from the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics show that in 2009 unemployment among the college-educated and above increased 1.2 percentage points over 2008. Taken together, these figures illustrate how the value of college and graduate degrees is steadily decreasing. The job bank survey also revealed that the gender wage gap is a very common phenomenon. In general, starting salaries for men are 18 percent higher than for women, and with increased time on the job the difference only gets larger. With seven to nine years of experience, the gap can be as large as 30 percent. Henry Ho, public relations director of 1111 Job Bank, said in 2009 salaries were highest in the construction and real estate sector. The average pay per month for those on the job under a year was NT$30,341; for five to seven years it was NT$41,186; and for seven to nine years NT$44,280, reflecting the booming real estate market of the last three years. In contrast, the service sector related to people’s daily lives, such as restaurants, hotels and beauty salons, had the lowest salaries, with just NT$25,553 for beginners and NT$33,153 for those with seven to nine years in the field, exhibiting a low range of salary adjustments. A person working in construction and real estate would need just one to three years to reach the same level. (THN)