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
In the first year of his second term, US President Donald Trump continued to shake the foundations of the liberal international order to realize his “America first” policy. However, amid an atmosphere of uncertainty and unpredictability, the Trump administration brought some clarity to its policy toward Taiwan. As expected, bilateral trade emerged as a major priority for the new Trump administration. To secure a favorable trade deal with Taiwan, it adopted a two-pronged strategy: First, Trump accused Taiwan of “stealing” chip business from the US, indicating that if Taipei did not address Washington’s concerns in this strategic sector, it could revisit its Taiwan
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) challenges and ignores the international rules-based order by violating Taiwanese airspace using a high-flying drone: This incident is a multi-layered challenge, including a lawfare challenge against the First Island Chain, the US, and the world. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) defines lawfare as “controlling the enemy through the law or using the law to constrain the enemy.” Chen Yu-cheng (陳育正), an associate professor at the Graduate Institute of China Military Affairs Studies, at Taiwan’s Fu Hsing Kang College (National Defense University), argues the PLA uses lawfare to create a precedent and a new de facto legal
Immediately after the Chinese People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) “Justice Mission” exercise at the end of last year, a question was posed to Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal regarding recent developments involving the exercises around Taiwan, and how he viewed their impact on regional peace and stability. His answer was somewhat perplexing to me as a curious student of Taiwanese affairs. “India closely follows developments across the Indo-Pacific region,” he said, adding: “We have an abiding interest in peace and stability in the region, in view of our significant trade, economic, people-to-people, and maritime interests. We urge all concerned
International debate on Taiwan is obsessed with “invasion countdowns,” framing the cross-strait crisis as a matter of military timetables and political opportunity. However, the seismic political tremors surrounding Central Military Commission (CMC) vice chairman Zhang Youxia (張又俠) suggested that Washington and Taipei are watching the wrong clock. Beijing is constrained not by a lack of capability, but by an acute fear of regime-threatening military failure. The reported sidelining of Zhang — a combat veteran in a largely unbloodied force and long-time loyalist of Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) — followed a year of purges within the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA)
RSS