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Comment by twobitshifter | Hacker News Reader

Do you have a source for the best Taiwan engineers working for minimum wage?

Monthly salary for a TSMC fab engineer is about NTD$48,000/month [1]; I saw another source on the web that listed NTD$612K/year, which is consistent. The exchange rate is 1 USD ~= 28 NTD, so that about USD$1700/month or about USD$10.50/hour, which is pretty close to what McDonald's pays these days.

Prices in many foreign countries are wonky though, because of different cultural & economic systems. You can have a good lunch out (the equivalent of fast-casual; most eateries are like that) in Taiwan for about USD$2-4, and because the expectation is that you live with your parents until you get married, housing expenses are minimal. There's also a big oversupply of 20-30something labor, because the older engineers who built the company (and get paid significantly more) aren't retiring and so those skilled jobs aren't opening up. That's behind both the low prices for food (many young Taiwanese open small restaurants) and for entry-level fab engineer jobs.

[1] https://www.glassdoor.com/Monthly-Pay/TSMC-Process-Engineer-...

McDonald's is paying $15 where I am now, and begging for applications.

McDonald’s is also forcing noncompetes on new hires. Nobody should work for them

Edit: my source (potus) was mistaken apparently. A better source is below and involves non poaching and different restaurants (not McDonald’s as far as I can tell)

> About 80 percent of fast-food workers are constricted by no-poaching clauses, according to Healey's office. The other fast-food chains targeted by the states' investigation are Arby's, Five Guys, Little Caesars and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2018/07/09/11-st...

That was a bogus claim made by Biden. Looks like hourly employees don't sign non-competes.

See:

https://www.factcheck.org/2020/07/bidens-false-claim-about-m...

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/jul/28/joe-biden/...

> Prices in many foreign countries are wonky though, because of different cultural & economic systems.

You should just adjust for PPP. The world bank estimates taiwan's GDP (nominal) to be 759M, but adjusted for PPP it's 1,403B. If we do the same adjustment for wages, we get $3165 per month, or $18.19/hr.

Even adjusting for PPP is complex though, because different goods have different cost adjustments. Actually buying a condo in Taiwan isn't cheap - I think my in-laws said it was around USD$500K for a 3BR/2BA in one of the Taipei exurbs, and can go up past $1M for luxury condos near a city center. That's close to Bay Area prices on McDonalds wages. A lot of Taiwanese youth are pretty much priced out of many markers of adulthood (not unlike many American Millennials), and can't do much other than eat, work, and play videogames. To have a house of their own and a job with the potential for career advancement, they basically need to wait for their parents to die. That's not really captured in PPP numbers, the same way that rampant asset inflation hasn't been captured in the American CPI.

+1 to these Taipei real estate price estimates. Note that TSMC is headquartered in Hsinchu County, and I think real estate is much cheaper there (please fact check me on this though).

source: Parents are from Taiwan, and I have relatives in Taiwan who tell me similar price estimates.

Not minimum wage certainly, but less. Not sure how significant an expense salary is for the TSMC though as a fab is very capital intensive.

https://focustaiwan.tw/business/202106300017

"The median employee salary at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), the world's largest contract chipmaker, reached NT$1.81 million (US$64,874) in 2020, up from NT$1.63 million a year earlier."

https://www.glassdoor.com/Salary/TSMC-Salaries-E4130.htm

Process engineer is like $73K/yr

So these, very skilled, employees probably get like ~15% less in Taiwan. No idea what Taiwan's employer tax situation looks like.

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