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That's the policy. But the effect is that TSMC doesn't need to raise salaries to retain workers, they can rely on the government to prevent the workers from be
by newacct583 5y ago
That's the policy. But the effect is that TSMC doesn't need to raise salaries to retain workers, they can rely on the government to prevent the workers from being recruited in the first place.
(edit: Can I say how amazingly hilarious it is watching all these notionally free-marketeer libertarians who believe in just compensation rush in to explain why it's totally OK for the Taiwanese government to shamelessly restrain trade as long as they're trying to stick it to the PRC?)
- threatofrain 5y agoTaiwanese workers may find their wages lowered due to lack of China bidding on their salaries, but there's still the rest of the world.
- sudosysgen 5y agoThe vast majority of the pressure comes from China.
- donw 5y agoTSMC will always lose that bid against a hostile state actor (the PRC) which can totally ignore market value in pursuit of strategic goals.
- rorykoehler 5y agoIt’s absurd people dumping on Taiwan don’t realise this. There is no way for Taiwan to compete with CCPs deep pockets if the CCP has decided it needs these engineers at all costs.
- newacct583 5y agoBut again, TSMC not only isn't trying to compete with "CCPs deep pockets", they're not even trying to compete with Apple or Intel! The time for that complaint is if they're still seeing poaching despite paying FAANG-scale salaries commensurate with their now-FAANG-scale revenue. To wit: TSMC is one of the big boys now, it's time to act like it and pay their workers. What they're doing right now is trying to cheat by using their government as a weapon against their own employees.
- fighterpilot 5y agoIt doesn't aritificially depress wages if China was offering artificially high wages in the first place.
- spaced-out 5y agoIf these people really are critical to the survival and future of your country, how can any wage be too high?
- fighterpilot 5y agoYou're thinking in absolutes. We would both agree that a billion dollars a month is too high. And I don't see how what you've said is related to what I said, which was a critique of the idea that this move is artificially depressing wages when allegedly it's an attempt to stop poaching of key talent at artificially high non market rates.
- spaced-out 5y ago>We would both agree that a billion dollars a month is too high. I would not necessarily agree. There are CEOs who make around that amount, why shouldn't an engineer make that much if they're equally important to the organization? From what I could gather from Google, TSMC engineers make far less than I do as a FAANG engineer, and TSMC posted a ~$14 billion profit last year. If these employees are so important to Taiwan's future, why can't they at least pay them FAANG-level salaries? It's not that they don't have the money.
- fighterpilot 5y agoBecause they're not equally important. Most engineers don't add billions of dollars of value. If a miscellaneous engineer resigns, it will have in most cases little impact on the prospects of the company. Most add only incremental value. The superstar seven figure ICs do get paid as such but they're rare, most people aren't that capable of that much value add as an IC. The company made billions in profits. That could be due to a number of reasons. IP, relationships, network effects, scale economies, regulatory capture, brand equity, etc.
- elefanten 5y agoThere are other places in the world Taiwanese talent can work. And other sources of FDI in Taiwan that can create wage competition -- see other comments about Google. China is uniquely and specifically trying to destroy Taiwan. The exception makes sense and doesn't have a totalizing effect.
- blackoil 5y agoThis is kind of an anti-dumping measure by Taiwan.
- sudosysgen 5y agoIt's not an anti-dumping measure. TSMC would be profitable paying their workers that much and so will be SMIC.