Nearly two-thirds of Taiwanese workers aged 39 or under consider themselves poor, according to an online job bank survey released yesterday.
The survey by yes123 on the financial status of workers in the 39-and-under age group in Taiwan found that, 63 percent of respondents categorized themselves among “the ranks of the poor,” while 34.5 percent said they are relatively well-off and 2.9 percent thought of themselves as rich.
When it came to income versus expenses, 39.1 percent of respondents said they break even, 27.3 percent said they spend more than they earn and 33.6 percent said they earn more than they spend.
A further 44.5 percent of people surveyed said they carry debt; among them, 22.8 percent said their debt is a heavy burden, according to the survey.
The most common reasons for debt were school loans (46.2 percent), common credit loans (32.2 percent) and credit cards (22.6 percent), the survey showed.
The survey also found that, although the average wage of the 39-and-under age group was NT$31,299 (US$956) per month — an increase of NT$4,625, or 17.3 percent, from their first job — 14.8 percent reported that their monthly wages are less than what they had earned in their first job.
The wages of a person who started working at age 30 only grew 2.2 percent per year over eight years of work, yes123 spokesman Yang Tsung-pin (楊宗斌) said.
No matter how wealthy someone is, they must accumulate at least NT$19.59 million to retire comfortably, the job bank said.
Based on a monthly salary of NT$31,299, a person would have to work for 625.9 months — 52.2 years — and save every New Taiwan dollar of their salary to accumulate such a fortune for retirement, yes123 said.
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