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Answering myself: According to Glassdoor: Software Engineer: 20k USD/year Senior Software Engineer: 24k USD/year Principal Engineer: 29k USD/year (https://

by mwfj 9y ago

Answering myself: According to Glassdoor: Software Engineer: 20k USD/year Senior Software Engineer: 24k USD/year Principal Engineer: 29k USD/year (https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/HTC-Taipei-Salaries-EI_IE41150.0,3_IL.4,10_IC3271041.htm https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/HTC-Taipei-Salaries-EI_IE41...) I get that it's not exactly Silicon Valley, but, wow.

pc86 9y ago
How does that actually compare to cost of living, tax climate, and wages for other jobs in the area, though? Posting the USD amount provides zero information. If the median income is $8k USD then $29k is pretty fantastic. If it's $60k...
- johansch 9y ago
  https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Taipei https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Taipei Found this comment which I am going to blindly trust. ;) So, for reference, the HTC salaries were in the range of 50-70k NTD/month. "90% of people working in Taipei make from 22-68k a month. College grads often make 22k a month out of College and those with a Master Degree start at 30,000NT a month. They spend about 5 years to make 40k a month. An Engineer might make 50k-75k a month. The only reason the Average is skewed to 70k is because Taipei has millionaires and billionaires that skew these numbers. It in NO WAY represents what the everyday working Taiwanese or Foreigner generally makes. TAIPEI WAGES Min Wage 18,000 Factory Work 18,000-20,000 Typical Office Worker 22,000-40,000 Nurse 30,000-40,000 Taxi Driver 60,000-70,000 Flight Attendant 50,000-60,000? Foreign English Teacher 55,000-70,000 Engineer 50,000-70,000 Doctor 150,000-400,000 Foreigner Specialist with Foreign Income---150,000-300,000"
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - friendstock 9y ago
    Note that in Taiwan, most companies offer a year-end bonus (at Chinese new year) of several months of salary. At the minimum this is 1 or 2 months, but depending on individual or company performance, it can go as high as 4 months (and in extreme cases, even more!). Hence the monthly salaries need to be multiplied by 14x or 16x or more, rather than 12x to get an annual salary.
    - johansch 9y ago
      (Ok.)
- komali2 9y ago
  I did a write up in 2014[1] when I was a bum English teacher there. (edit: man those charts are garbage, sorry folks, best of luck in that article :P ) In short, it's cheap as hellllllll. Rent was like 270/month, food and fun was nothing, life is so so so good in Taiwan. I stress regularly about Chinese bluster regarding Taiwan, it is an incredible country I really believe is chock full of opportunity. My journey to become a software engineer started there. Now that I've snuck my way into frontend, it's my goal as I get more experienced and senior to eventually move back there and start remote contracting or start my own business there. I'm still convinced I could get the best engineers in Taiwan to work for me by just paying them 50k flat out (they make like 20-30/year and are expected to work 9am-9pm, sometimes weekends, arbitrarily) and giving them reasonable (to an American) benefits. [1](http://ablate.blogspot.tw/2014/05/what-does-it-cost-to-live-in-asia.html http://ablate.blogspot.tw/2014/05/what-does-it-cost-to-live-...)
  - Apocryphon 9y ago
    Do you know what types of platforms, languages, specializations, etc. that Taiwanese engineers tend to be strong at? Besides matters related to hardware/firmware.
rplnt 9y ago
Many positions that require higher education (unlike software engineering) don't even touch those figures in some EU countries. Or is Taipei that expensive? edit: saw the comment bellow
hocuspocus 9y ago
I've a made a bunch of Taiwanese friends when I was working in Korea, including former HTC employees, and salary was often the main motivation for their move (easily double in Korea, adjusted to CoL). Funnily enough they've now all left, to mainland China!
komali2 9y ago
That's low, about 4 years ago it was standard 30k for college grad. Glassdoor often underestimates. Anyway this is just hearsay of course, before anybody would believe any of this I would say let's get the census in or something.
- johansch 9y ago
  I saw a bunch of comments saying that the salaries used to be good (presumably when HTC did really well a bunch of years ago).

by mwfj 9y ago

pc86 9y ago

How does that actually compare to cost of living, tax climate, and wages for other jobs in the area, though? Posting the USD amount provides zero information. If the median income is $8k USD then $29k is pretty fantastic. If it's $60k...

johansch 9y ago
https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Taipei https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/in/Taipei Found this comment which I am going to blindly trust. ;) So, for reference, the HTC salaries were in the range of 50-70k NTD/month. "90% of people working in Taipei make from 22-68k a month. College grads often make 22k a month out of College and those with a Master Degree start at 30,000NT a month. They spend about 5 years to make 40k a month. An Engineer might make 50k-75k a month. The only reason the Average is skewed to 70k is because Taipei has millionaires and billionaires that skew these numbers. It in NO WAY represents what the everyday working Taiwanese or Foreigner generally makes. TAIPEI WAGES Min Wage 18,000 Factory Work 18,000-20,000 Typical Office Worker 22,000-40,000 Nurse 30,000-40,000 Taxi Driver 60,000-70,000 Flight Attendant 50,000-60,000? Foreign English Teacher 55,000-70,000 Engineer 50,000-70,000 Doctor 150,000-400,000 Foreigner Specialist with Foreign Income---150,000-300,000"
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- friendstock 9y ago
  Note that in Taiwan, most companies offer a year-end bonus (at Chinese new year) of several months of salary. At the minimum this is 1 or 2 months, but depending on individual or company performance, it can go as high as 4 months (and in extreme cases, even more!). Hence the monthly salaries need to be multiplied by 14x or 16x or more, rather than 12x to get an annual salary.
  - johansch 9y ago
    (Ok.)
komali2 9y ago
I did a write up in 2014[1] when I was a bum English teacher there. (edit: man those charts are garbage, sorry folks, best of luck in that article :P ) In short, it's cheap as hellllllll. Rent was like 270/month, food and fun was nothing, life is so so so good in Taiwan. I stress regularly about Chinese bluster regarding Taiwan, it is an incredible country I really believe is chock full of opportunity. My journey to become a software engineer started there. Now that I've snuck my way into frontend, it's my goal as I get more experienced and senior to eventually move back there and start remote contracting or start my own business there. I'm still convinced I could get the best engineers in Taiwan to work for me by just paying them 50k flat out (they make like 20-30/year and are expected to work 9am-9pm, sometimes weekends, arbitrarily) and giving them reasonable (to an American) benefits. [1](http://ablate.blogspot.tw/2014/05/what-does-it-cost-to-live-in-asia.html http://ablate.blogspot.tw/2014/05/what-does-it-cost-to-live-...)
- Apocryphon 9y ago
  Do you know what types of platforms, languages, specializations, etc. that Taiwanese engineers tend to be strong at? Besides matters related to hardware/firmware.

rplnt 9y ago

Many positions that require higher education (unlike software engineering) don't even touch those figures in some EU countries. Or is Taipei that expensive? edit: saw the comment bellow

hocuspocus 9y ago

I've a made a bunch of Taiwanese friends when I was working in Korea, including former HTC employees, and salary was often the main motivation for their move (easily double in Korea, adjusted to CoL). Funnily enough they've now all left, to mainland China!

komali2 9y ago

That's low, about 4 years ago it was standard 30k for college grad. Glassdoor often underestimates. Anyway this is just hearsay of course, before anybody would believe any of this I would say let's get the census in or something.

johansch 9y ago
I saw a bunch of comments saying that the salaries used to be good (presumably when HTC did really well a bunch of years ago).