The average salary in Taiwan is 129,000 TWD (New Taiwan Dollar) or around USD 4,203 per month (as per the exchange rates in May 2023).
To give you a reference, the average monthly salary in the United States is USD 7900, which is significantly higher than in Taiwan.
However, you can’t make crucial financial decisions, like outsourcing to Taiwan, based on this statistic alone. You’ll need a comprehensive study on the country’s salary structure, laws, and economy in general.
In this article, we’ll share the average salary figure in Taiwan and other related statistics and trends to help you make an informed business decision.
Table of Contents
- The average salary in Taiwan in 2023
- 4 factors that influence salaries in Taiwan
- The average salaries for popular jobs
- 3 reasons why you should consider outsourcing to Taiwan
Let’s get started.
The average salary in Taiwan in 2023
According to Salary Explorer, a Taiwanese employee earns an average annual salary of around 1,550,000 TWD (approx. USD 50,500).
But just like any other country, employee salaries in Taiwan may vary based on different factors. However, an average salary figure is a good indicator of how much a Taiwanese employee typically earns.
Note: The average salary includes benefits like housing, transport, etc. But it’s not an indicator of the purchasing power of a Taiwanese employee, which may depend on other factors like tax rate, cost of living, etc.
To help you better understand the salary structure in Taiwan, let’s take a look at it from different perspectives:
A. Average salary range
On average, employees in Taiwan may earn an annual salary between 392,400 TWD (lowest average) to 6,924,000 TWD (highest average).
Please note that the above figures are not the actual maximum or minimum salary of a Taiwanese employee. It’s the average of highest and lowest salaries in the country.
This salary range could give you a better picture of the higher and lower end of the incomes in Taiwan.
B. Median salary
Another indicator of the typical income of a Taiwanese employee is to see the national median salary.
Median salary represents the mid-point in a salary distribution arranged in either ascending or descending order.
According to Salary Explorer, the median salary in Taiwan is 1,380,000 TWD (USD 44,961) per year. It means that one-half of the Taiwanese earning population earns less than the median income while the other half earns more.
Employers could also use the median salary for identifying the mid-point salary within an organization, sector, department, etc.
C. Minimum wage
The minimum or basic wage is the lowest remuneration that an employer is legally bound to pay its hourly workers.
In 2023, the minimum monthly wage in Taiwan is set at TWD 26,400 (around USD 860)
In Taiwan, the basic wage is set by the Ministry of Labor and approved by the Executive Yuan. The Ministry of Labor also protects workers’ employment rights and aims to strengthen employee-employer relationships through laws like Labor Standards Act and Employment Service Act.
These laws help secure employees’ data and safeguard them from payment frauds (like non-payment of severance pay), among other things.
For reference, the minimum hourly wage in Taiwan is slightly less than that in the USA, which is set at USD 7.25 per hour.
Disclaimer: All the average wage and salary figures in this article are taken from various independent salary surveys. These figures are only intended as general guidelines and not exact values.
To calculate a Taiwanese employee’s actual personal income (considering their base salary and other earnings like bonuses, overtime compensation, etc.), you can visit this website.
Now, let’s check out the factors that determine an employee’s salary in Taiwan.
4 factors that influence salaries in Taiwan
Here are the four major factors that play a role in determining salaries in Taiwan:
1. Education
As a general rule, the higher a Taiwanese employee’s qualification, the more money they earn.
Here’s how the salaries vary by education level:
- Employees with a certificate or a diploma typically earn about 17% more than those fresh out of high school.
- Those with a bachelor’s degree earn about 24% more than employees with a diploma.
- Professionals with a master’s degree enjoy a 29% salary appreciation over those with bachelor’s degrees.
- Similarly, employees with a Ph.D. usually earn 23% more than those with a master’s degree.
Source: Salary Explorer
2. Experience
Just like education, the experience level of employees plays a key role in determining their income.
Here’s how the salary scale varies with years of experience:
- A salaried employee (or hourly worker) with experience between two and five years usually earns 32% more salary (wages) than those starting their careers.
- The salary gain reaches 36% when employees reach the five-year experience mark.
- The subsequent salary hikes at 10, 15, and 20-year milestones are about 21%, 14%, and 9%, respectively.
Source: Salary Explorer
3. Location
The average employee salary in Taiwan also depends on the city you’re operating from.
For example, the port city of Kaohsiung is a big industrial hub and offers some of the highest salaries in the country, followed by Taichung and Taipei.
Here’s a list of the average salaries by location:
| City | Average Salary / Month |
| Kaohsiung City | 146,000 TWD |
| Taipei City | 130,000 TWD |
| Tainan | 121,000 TWD |
| Taichung | 135,000 TWD |
Source: Salary Explorer
4. Industry
Here’s an industry-wise breakdown of the average salaries in Taiwan:
| Industry / Sector | Average Monthly Salary |
| Engineering | 109,000 TWD |
| Factory and Manufacturing | 88,300 TWD |
| Information Technology | 130,000 TWD |
| Oil / Gas / Energy / Mining | 116,000 TWD |
| Health and Medical | 193,000 TWD |
| Human Resources | 122,000 TWD |
| Teaching / Education | 137,000 TWD |
Source: Salary Explorer
The average salaries for popular jobs
Let’s take a look at the average salary information for some popular professions in Taiwan in 2022:
| Job Title | Average Salary / Month |
| Project Manager | 175,000 TWD |
| Software Engineer | 148,225 TWD |
| Elementary School Teacher | 91,100 TWD |
| Business Development Manager | 218,000 TWD |
| Receptionist | 51,300 TWD |
| Customer Service Representative | 49,700 TWD |
Source: Salary Explorer and Salary Expert
Now, let’s explore why Taiwan is such a popular outsourcing destination.
3 reasons why you should consider outsourcing to Taiwan
Taiwan has long been one of the most prominent outsourcing destinations in East Asia, alongside big names like China and Japan.
Its many outsourcing benefits attract big global companies to set up manufacturing plants and offices, especially in sectors like electronics (semiconductor manufacturing) and ICT (Information and Communication Technology).
Taiwan is one of the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturing economies, with leading brands like Apple, Nvidia, etc., relying on the country for their chip supplies.
Want to learn more about outsourcing and its benefits?
Find out all about outsourcing in this detailed guide.
Here are three benefits of outsourcing your operations to Taiwan:
1. Cost-effective
One of the biggest advantages of outsourcing to Taiwan is the cost savings.
The average salary figures above show that the relatively lower salaries make Taiwan a smart option to run your business operations from.
Moreover, the cost of living in Taiwan is significantly lower than in these countries. It translates to cheaper business resources, which makes the country an even better outsourcing proposition.
2. Technically adept workforce
With a literacy rate of around 98% (2021), Taiwan is one of the most job-ready countries in Asia. But what makes the country stand out is the level of technical expertise among its workforce.
Taiwanese universities produce more than 10,000 graduates skilled in information systems and computer science. In 2020, almost 35.4 percent of the workforce in Taiwan had been employed in the industrial sector (Statista, 2020).
In addition to excellent technical skills, professionals in Taiwan possess strong language skills. Besides Taiwanese Hokkien, most job seekers can speak English and/or Mandarin. This is a key reason why Taiwan’s customer support and BPO industry is witnessing steady growth.
In 2020, the Taiwan government committed to a budget of 9.6 billion TWD (USD 330.81 million) for a 12-year program to boost semiconductor training programs across universities.
It also aims to expand the semiconductor technology colleges in four universities, which would add at least 5000 graduates with master’s degrees or doctorates over the 12-year period.
These measures will strengthen the Taiwanese workforce further and should be something foreign companies planning to hire local talent must keep an eye on.
3. Conducive business environment
Taiwan has a highly supportive business climate that prioritizes entrepreneurship and business outsourcing.
This includes:
- Generous funding for startups through venture capital and angel investments.
- Reasonable immigration policy for foreign workers and expatriates to attract more businesses.
- Income Tax incentives for startup investors.
These innovative measures helped Taiwan rank at 15th position (out of 189 countries) at the 2020 Ease of Doing Business Index.
Moreover, the country’s export-dependent economy is largely stable and is expected to grow at 3.3% in 2022. The GDP per capita is poised at USD 34,880, as per 2022 forecasts.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) enlists Taiwan as an advanced economy, alongside other Asian regions like Hong Kong and Japan. Based on the GDP, the country is among the top 25 economies in the world.
Taiwan is also a part of numerous trade agreements with countries like the USA, Japan, Singapore. In fact, Taiwan was United States’ 10th largest trading partner in 2019.
Wrapping up
A high-tech workforce, affordable labor, and business-friendly policies make Taiwan a world-class outsourcing destination.
But before you take the leap, don’t forget to conduct thorough research. Use the comprehensive analysis in this article to understand the salary structure in Taiwan.
