Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘) has once more been talking about the number “22k.”
The 22k figure originated in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis. As businesses across the board foundered, the Ministry of Education allocated a special budget to subsidize the monthly salary for interns who had just finished school and started work, bringing it up to NT$22,000.
However, 22k has gradually taken on a new life as a signifier, influencing how companies remunerate their employees and reflected in the expectations of workers as they enter the workplace. The subjective meaning that was originally attached to the figure of 22k in Taiwan has disappeared, while objectively it has turned into what French sociologist Roland Barthes called a “myth.”
By “myth,” Barthes meant a form of discourse, a kind of signal. In his view, when a sign is elevated to the status of a myth, it becomes a form of discourse operating on an implicit level, taking on a life of its own. Consider this: How many financial woes have beleaguered the international community since the curse of the 2008 financial crisis reared its ugly head? There have been the eurozone debt crisis and the threatened disintegration of the eurozone, necessitating the US government’s decision to print lots of money and its policy of quantitative easing. We have also seen the decline or bankruptcy of many annuity funds and welfare programs, as well as rising commodity prices.
What are the repercussions of the 22k myth? It has informed the level at which salaries have settled in the nation, across industries, regardless of the work involved or the effort required.
No matter how skilled workers may be, or how hardworking or ambitious they are, few are willing to focus on their jobs when they involve too much hard work when they are being asked to work for the same low salary as everyone else.
The result is that many just go from company to company, frequently changing jobs, and pay more attention to their leisure pursuits than to cultivating the correct attitude to work.
The myth of 22k has come to signify disgruntled employers unhappy with their employees’ attitudes to work, and employees loath to work for low pay. This is how people have come to understand the term and the idea they mean to express when using it.
How should Taiwanese interpret and analyze this? In this day and age, numbers count, but so do perceptions. Employers should think about the symbolic meaning that 22k has taken on, and pay these newcomers to the workplace according to their abilities, setting up a range of pay brackets to differentiate those who work hard from those who do not and based on how well they work and on employers’ expectations. This will benefit both employer and employee, creating a win-win situation.
Meanwhile, employees would be given the choice of finding satisfaction with NT$22,000 a month, or thinking of it as a starting point from which to progress, reflecting upon whether their attitude to work is a healthy one or whether they can do better.
Maybe when people start thinking about 22k in this way, the spell will finally be broken.
Chao Che-sheng is an assistant professor in Kainan University’s Department of Information Communications.
Translated by Julian Clegg
China has not been a top-tier issue for much of the second Trump administration. Instead, Trump has focused considerable energy on Ukraine, Israel, Iran, and defending America’s borders. At home, Trump has been busy passing an overhaul to America’s tax system, deporting unlawful immigrants, and targeting his political enemies. More recently, he has been consumed by the fallout of a political scandal involving his past relationship with a disgraced sex offender. When the administration has focused on China, there has not been a consistent throughline in its approach or its public statements. This lack of overarching narrative likely reflects a combination
US President Donald Trump’s alleged request that Taiwanese President William Lai (賴清德) not stop in New York while traveling to three of Taiwan’s diplomatic allies, after his administration also rescheduled a visit to Washington by the minister of national defense, sets an unwise precedent and risks locking the US into a trajectory of either direct conflict with the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or capitulation to it over Taiwan. Taiwanese authorities have said that no plans to request a stopover in the US had been submitted to Washington, but Trump shared a direct call with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平)
Heavy rains over the past week have overwhelmed southern and central Taiwan, with flooding, landslides, road closures, damage to property and the evacuations of thousands of people. Schools and offices were closed in some areas due to the deluge throughout the week. The heavy downpours brought by the southwest monsoon are a second blow to a region still recovering from last month’s Typhoon Danas. Strong winds and significant rain from the storm inflicted more than NT$2.6 billion (US$86.6 million) in agricultural losses, and damaged more than 23,000 roofs and a record high of nearly 2,500 utility poles, causing power outages. As
It is difficult to think of an issue that has monopolized political commentary as intensely as the recall movement and the autopsy of the July 26 failures. These commentaries have come from diverse sources within Taiwan and abroad, from local Taiwanese members of the public and academics, foreign academics resident in Taiwan, and overseas Taiwanese working in US universities. There is a lack of consensus that Taiwan’s democracy is either dying in ashes or has become a phoenix rising from the ashes, nurtured into existence by civic groups and rational voters. There are narratives of extreme polarization and an alarming