Online job bank yes123 yesterday released a survey on the average pay grades in the five special municipalities (and Taoyuan County, which is to be upgraded to a special municipality on Dec. 25) and people’s preferred places to work that found 65 percent of respondents think they are underpaid, while up to 56 percent of those working in the Greater Taipei area are contemplating returning to their hometowns.
According to the survey, Taiwanese on average need a salary of NT$40,000 (US$1,333) to pursue their desired quality of life, with those holding jobs in the Greater Taipei area saying that they need to be paid between NT$43,000 and NT$45,000 to fulfill their basic needs.
New Taipei City is the municipality with the highest pain index when it comes to making ends meet, followed by Taipei, with the disposable income in the two cities averaging NT$24,000 and NT$35,000 respectively, the survey showed.
By and large, those working in Greater Taipei area say they would require a 10 percent pay raise to be able to lead the lifestyle they desire, it showed.
Furthermore, while 40 percent of people said that they want to move to Taipei to look for jobs, 56 percent are thinking about moving back home.
The results showed that among the six municipalities, Taipei has the heaviest workload, with each person working an average of 1.75 days of overtime per week and 56.1 percent of respondents reporting they are not getting enough rest, second only to Greater Kaohsiung’s 57.5 percent.
When asked whether they agreed with being paid differently according to the city they work in, 70 percent of respondents in the Greater Taipei area said they do, while only 60 percent of those in Greater Kaohsiung held the same view, with the rest expressing concerns about being discriminated against as people working in “low-wage cities.”
In general, Taiwanese appear to no longer view Taipei as the ideal place to pursue a career, with the poll finding a substantial proportion of people now think they might fare better in their hometowns.
Originally from Yunlin County, Hsu Wen-hsin (許文馨), who talked about her work experience at a workshop organized by the Web site yesterday, said her life in Taipei so far has met with many ups and downs.
After leaving her post as a quality control worker in the food industry, she started a business selling pitas she developed based on “coffin bread” — a local cuisine — at the Raohe Street Night Market in Taipei.
Just when business started booming, the food scare involving cooking oils processed with tainted lard erupted, causing her food stand to suffer a 70 percent drop in sales, she said.
She said that she hoped the MRT Songshan line, which opened yesterday, would help to bring back business.
Lin Chia-feng (林佳灃), who is originally from Greater Taichung, said he worked as a receptionist at the Sheraton Grande Taipei Hotel and moonlighted as a bartender at a night club.
However, after his father died, he said that he decided to move back home to help with the family business — selling minced pork rice.
Thanks to his experience working at a Western restaurant, he developed a special seasoning for the traditional Taiwanese dish by blending elements from Western foods, he said.
As it turned out, his culinary experimentation helped him market large quantities of seasoning packets for minced pork rice to customers overseas, who embraced the new flavor, he said.
Yes123 deputy director Yang Tsung-pin (楊宗斌) said that although there is a greater possibility of being paid better working in Taipei, the decision to leave one’s hometown comes at the price of higher expenses and greater competition.
He suggested that people who who move to the Greater Taipei area stay for three or four years before deciding whether to move back home.
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