The Influential Factors on Wages for New Taiwanese College Graduates
Date Issued
2016
Date
2016
Author(s)
Shen, Wen-Li
Abstract
This research was done in order to find out how two main factors, those being human capital (school type, ie., public or private, university or vocational college, and the students'' major) and industry factors (field of work), affect wages of new Taiwanese college graduates. The control factors in this study were gender, company size and work experience at school. Two Taiwanese government databases for the three years 2012 to 2014 were used: one from the Ministry of Education and the other from the Ministry of Labor. These databases were about students who had graduated in 2011. To confirm the amount of their wages, we used personal IDs to check wages data one by one from the Labor Pension Fund database, First of all, we found that human capital does influence college graduates'' wages. Public school and university graduates get higher pay than private or vocational college graduates. College graduates from different majors also get different amount of wages. Those graduates who major in a special technology get higher pay than those who major in law, literature or business. We also find that three years after graduating, human capital factors, for example school types and different majors, still keep and do not retreat their influences on wages. As far as wages go, youth seem to be labeled by their school and major: the influence of human capital youth''s wages in Taiwan seems to be very strong. Second, industry factors play a very important role in the wages of youth, no matter whether they have just graduated or it is three years after they have graduated. Even when we controlled the influential factors of school type or majors, we found that industry factors strongly affect wages, although the effects retreat a little three years after graduating. In terms of industrial differentials, people who work in the transportation and warehousing industry and the manufacturing industry can get higher pay than in the other industries looked at in this study, no matter whether a year after graduating or three years after graduating. More young graduated students transfer to jobs in those higher pay industries three years after graduating. Although people who work in the information & communication industry obtain lower pay in the beginning, they seem to have a high jump in their wage three years after graduating. On the other hand, youth who work in education or wholesale and retail trade jobs obtain lower pay compared to other industries, and many youth who work in these fields transfer into other ones three years after graduating. Forth, in terms of control factors, males get higher pay than females, and youth who work in big companies get higher pay than those who work in small companies, no matter whether it is within their first year after graduating or three years after graduating. But the influence of gender and company size on wages seems to have more of an effect three years after graduating.
Subjects
New Taiwanese College Graduates
youth employment
youth wages
human capital
industrial wages differential
screening theory
Type
thesis