Choice - living in the UK or Philippines?

[Ayjay]

I don't know any upper class Filipinos, I do know one middle class guy that works for ebay and earns a western style salary (still low but very good) I also know a number of very educated Filipinos who earn about 300 quid a month two of them lawyers and one a computer programmer and they are all very decent people, the rest are poor, some of them have motives for being friendly but many of them don't and are just good people.

Jim

There are many Filipinos that earn or have an income that would make your eyes water..

Our Filipino corporate lawer (Harvard educated) was paid a retainer of $100,000 USD per year, plus time, travel expenses etc when representing the company. And we were only one of this corporate clients.

I agree that provincial jobing lawers doing business under a mango tree would pull in about $500 per month.

In terms of expats working in the Phils for multinational corporations; these guys are normally seconded from other overseas business units for specific projects, for well defined time lines. Normally, their home based salaries are paid into their bank accounts in their home countries. An expat engineering manager or specialist would normally have an in country allowance of 200,000 Pesos (2001 levels), car, driver, accomodation, medical insurance, kids education, yearly family return air travel.. etc..etc..

Prime locations for these expats are, Manila, Baguio, Santa Rosa, Marivelles Bataan, Limay Bataan... and other locations.

AJ

[JimOttley]

There are many Filipinos that earn or have an income that would make your eyes water..

Our Filipino corporate lawer (Harvard educated) was paid a retainer of $100,000 USD per year, plus time, travel expenses etc when representing the company. And we were only one of this corporate clients.

I agree that provincial jobing lawers doing business under a mango tree would pull in about $500 per month.

In terms of expats working in the Phils for multinational corporations; these guys are normally seconded from other overseas business units for specific projects, for well defined time lines. Normally, their home based salaries are paid into their bank accounts in their home countries. An expat engineering manager or specialist would normally have an in country allowance of 200,000 Pesos (2001 levels), car, driver, accomodation, medical insurance, kids education, yearly family return air travel.. etc..etc..

Prime locations for these expats are, Manila, Baguio, Santa Rosa, Marivelles Bataan, Limay Bataan... and other locations.

AJ

Yeah there are clearly a lot of people making a lot of money, something has to support all the malls but your average degree educated bloke in the Phils is not on a spectacular salary, that's why everyone has sidelines

The lawyers I was taking about are good friends of ours in their early 30's one of them just about to finish his bar exams and will be fully qualified then, they both work for local law firms and that is basically what you get paid if you're not running your own practice.

The Filipino lad working for ebay is on about 3 million peso a year and for a local lad that is pretty good.

I also know a software company in Makati (foreign owners) that has become very successful over the last 10 years and employs a couple of lads from the UK, they are on around 15,000 GBP a year but they are happy with that as they are young and are enjoying the experience of living over there. The locals working for the same company are the ones on ~500 dollars a month.

Me I'm too old and unlikely to ever find a company that would employ me in the Phils an appropriate role for for my skills, they could get 10 good local guys for the salary I would be looking for, the only thing they wouldn't get would be my experience


Jim

[Ayjay]

Yeah there are clearly a lot of people making a lot of money, something has to support all the malls but your average degree educated bloke in the Phils is not on a spectacular salary, that's why everyone has sidelines

Jim

Indeed, the Philippines is awash with under utilised degree qualified talent. When the Americans pulled out of the Phils, principally from Clark Airbase, and Subic Bay; Bataan and Zambales had the dubious privilege of having some of the most qualified tricycle and jeepney drivers in the Philippines. Many of them having licences to work on many varieties of aircraft C130's C147's etc; and never found such work again.

Currently the Philippines continues to churn out graduates at an alarming rate, many of whom have very little chance of finding any employment, and do not have the experience to secure appropriate overseas work..

Hence the tendency to find teachers working as domestics; nurses are working as care assistants in retirement homes, engineers working as builders. The one thing they have in common is that they are all punching below their weight in terms of salary, and most are exploited by their employers..

AJ