- Being a Foreigner and an Expatriate in Shanghai
- Salary Expectation of Expatriates in Shanghai
- Resources for Finding a Job in China
- Personal Income Tax in China for Foreigners
An expatriate, also called an expat, is someone who is living and/or working in a country other than his/her own home country. There are many expats in Shanghai and I’m one of them. Expatriates come from all over the world such as North America, Europe, and other Asian countries. I’m a U.S. citizen but have been working in Shanghai since 2001. Shanghai is actually “home” for now but since I’m not a PRC citizen, I will always be a foreigner and an expatriate living in this country.
Local Chinese people have certain stereotypes about expats and foreigners in Shanghai. For one thing, Chinese people think that expats are rich or that they make a lot of money. People naturally assume that expats are paid higher salary than locals. That may be true but I want to give a breakdown on the different types of expats living in China. Not all expatriates make a lot of money.
Different Types of Expatriates in China
- Expatriates with full expat package. These expats are usually high-level managers that companies send to come to China to work for a few months or years. Companies pay these expats the full U.S. salary, sometimes even more, in addition to paying for their ~$5000 USD/month villa, chauffeur, housekeeper, and all their children’s international school tuition that costs about $20-25K USD per child. These expats are very expensive to keep so they don’t usually stay very long. Estimate annual salary: At least $100K+ USD, not including benefits.
- Expatriate with same U.S. salary. These expats, like the previous expats, are asked by their companies (in their home country) to work in China for a short period of time, usually project-based. They get to keep their U.S. salary and companies sometimes pay for their housing as well. They also stay for a few months or years. Most of the time, these expats were hired first in their home country and then come to China. Estimate annual salary: $50-100K USD.
- International school teachers. International school teachers are usually hired overseas and make a very good salary. They don’t make as much as the previously mentioned expats, but certainly a lot more than what teachers are usually paid in the U.S. In addition, schools often pay for their housing, return flights, and taxes, so their income is entirely disposable. These are lucrative teaching jobs that allow you 3 months of vacation annually! Estimate annual salary: $30-75K USD
- Locally hired expatriates. These expats come to China because they are bored with whatever they were doing back home or are looking for new adventures. They come to China to study Chinese, teach English, follow their spouse, find a wife, and/or look for work. They get paid somewhere between local and U.S. salary. Because they are already in China, companies are not likely to pay them a U.S. salary given the competitive market here. We call these expats the locally hired expats, or “half-pats.” Some of these expats are hired overseas but willingly accept the less than U.S. salary. Estimate annual salary: $15-75K USD.
- Expatriates with freelance job(s). These are expats not looking for or can’t find full-time work . They do freelance work like journalism, consulting, part-time work, tutoring, gigs, etc… While these expats have the flexibility to do whatever they want as long as they make enough to sustain themselves, there’s not always a guarantee of a paycheck. In addition, with China tightening up on visas, many expats in this category have had to go back to their home country because they couldn’t get their visas renewed. Salary range is all over the place.
- Expatriates with local salary. These expats settle for local salary. They get paid the same amount as their local colleagues. The pay may or may not be bad depending on the company they are working for. But more often than not, these expats are not very happy with what they are making.
- Trailing spouse. Trailing spouses of expats are either stay-at-home moms/dads, volunteer at expat-community places like community centers and schools, or find part-time work like substitute teaching and other miscellaneous jobs.
- Expatriates without a job. These are expats who don’t have jobs because they are either studying Chinese, still looking for work, or have become a parasite to this country.
Expats with the full expat package are few and rare. Companies are cutting down costs significantly so they don’t send as many U.S.-salaried expats overseas. Most expats in China fall in the other categories, mainly the “half-pats” category. So what about Shanghai Tech Writer, you might ask? I used to teach at a bilingual school, very similar to an international school. I earned a lucrative teaching salary with 3 months of annual vacation to travel around the world. Now I am a locally hired expat, or “half-pat.” I can’t complain because I voluntarily gave up my cushy teaching job for a new career in technical writing. And I love it!
How Much is Enough?
However, that’s not always the case with other locally hired expats or expats with less than “ideal” salary—which is basically most expats I know. I don’t think I’ve met many expats (the ones without the lucrative full or U.S. package) that are happy with what they are making.
In a future post, I’ll write about why expatriates have certain expectations about their job, their work, and how much they make. It is true that expatriates complain a lot. One thing they always complain about is not being paid “enough.” So why is that when they already make significantly higher than the average local salary?
Stay tuned!
Updated ( 08/15/08): Salary Expectation of Expatriates in Shanghai
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August 12th, 2008 at 3:36 am
Nice article. When I was an expat in Egypt, I wrote an article called “10 Types of Expats”. It’s not nearly as serious, but it was a lot fun to write.
Must be cool to be in China during the Olympics.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:37 am
Oops, wrong link. 10 Types of Expats. Sorry.
Tom Johnsons last blog post..Word Macro for Resizing Images that Have a Specific Style
August 12th, 2008 at 8:45 am
I’d actually like to work in Shanghai, or obviously, nearby. My skills have varied over the years - I have a degree from Purdue in Industrial Engineering - but have focused more lately on freelance writing…
So what jobs are available? Where could I find them? (I currently don’t work for a multinational corp. and I don’t speak Mandarin - I think that’s the dialect of choice in the area…)
Should I learn Mandarin immediately? (And which would be the best book/course to learn from?)
I hope this hasn’t been too many questions.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
@Tom, I like your article about expats in Egypt! The types of expats you mentioned applies to Shanghai as well.
@Jason, China Splash is a good place to start looking for jobs in China. However, it’s a little more difficult to find a job in China from another country. Most employers prefer to hire locally. Teaching is usually the easiest way to find work in China. There are plenty of universities, schools, and language institutes/programs looking for native-speakers to teach English. You don’t need to know how to speak Mandarin to work in Shanghai although it helps if you have the language skills.
August 12th, 2008 at 3:11 pm
Forgot to mention, if you’re interested in learning Mandarin, I recommend Chinese Pod. You can download or subscribe to lessons ranging from beginner to advanced level.
August 12th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Good info!
Curious, what would be considered a reasonable salary range in US Dollars for Shanghai or other big metro? (Since I have no idea…what it costs to live there realistically…)
I am more likely just getting a feel from a pro than in actuality moving forward. If I could get hired to move to an overseas port, I would love it…Thanks
August 12th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
@Jason, “reasonable salary range” varies depending on your idea of “comfort.” I wrote an article that will be published later this week about salary expectations and cost of living in Shanghai. Check back on Friday or Saturday.
Shanghai has a significantly lower cost of living than in the U.S. You can live pretty “comfortably” with a salary of ~10,000 RMB (~$1400 USD) a month. Then again, many expats will demand much higher. Most English teaching positions or jobs seeking native-speakers will pay at least 10,000 RMB/month. Average income for college graduates in Shanghai is only about 3000-5000 RMB.
Check out Wangjianshuo’s Blog! His blog has a lot of useful information about living/working in Shanghai.
August 31st, 2008 at 12:08 am
I work at a MNC (a very famous one) and earn RMB 3900 a month.
Am a EU national and came to China for academic research years ago, not for working purposes however I was offered a job in 2004, which offered me RMB 3000 a month……
August 31st, 2008 at 12:50 am
There is a category of expats that was not mentioned, those who come here to set up a business…Because I am in this category
Great post otherwise!
Patrick
August 31st, 2008 at 1:06 am
@poorlittleexpat, wow, just as your name suggests, you do make very little. But I hope you love what you are doing because there aren’t many expats willing to work for that amount unless they love their work.
September 4th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Susan, Yeah…..I’m making little and frankly speaking, this job chose me, and not me choosing it coz I don’t want to stay jobless.
Qualification counts. I was not able to afford college back those old days and ended up working since I was 19 years old
And then came to China, and ended up sadly like this.
I wanted to get a salary of just RMB 10000, and I’d be happy about that. But……well, I think you should write a post offering some tips on where to look for better jobs.
I really have no options now. Too little money even to fly back my hometown, as I need to rent a home again and get settled…blah blah……..too much money needed and I don’t have that.
September 19th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Hello… I am a Malaysian Expat living in china; near shanghai-suzhou (working as a Project Engineer/Manager in a manufacturing industry) nearly for one and a half years… i need some advice or opinion on my pay here as i think even some of the locals here are getting same pay as me in some of the MNC companies around this area.
actually i am working for a taiwanese company and my salary is RMB 13k including tax with expat dormitory, laundry, 3meal a day and transport once in while which the company is providing additionally…Before coming here, i had 5 years of working experience in engineering/manufacturing field. and work here; most of the time i think i am over-loaded. so, am i under paid or should i look for some other opportunity else where???
This is because, in near future i may have a chance in a US based company around suzhou area and i dont know how much should i expect as an expat (std package at least)….
Hope to receive some comments and advices….
malaysianguy…..
September 20th, 2008 at 12:37 am
@Malaysiaguy, thanks for visiting my blog. Salary range for expatriates in China are all over the place, depending on job position, experience, nationality, educational background, language skills, cities, etc… I can’t tell you whether you are making a decent salary because I don’t know all the details of your work, background, etc… but even if I did, I’m not in any position to make that judgment as I often see lots of expatriates disgruntled and discontent about what they are making.
The salary range I provided on this blog is only a rough estimate, more specifically for expatriates from North America because that’s mostly the source of information I have. I do think expatriates from North America have higher salary than expats from other countries, only because they have higher salary expectations. Most North Americans would only come to work/live China if they consider the opportunity and salary to be reasonable or comparable to equivalent standard of living (even if salary and cost of living are different). Otherwise, they’re much better off staying in their home country… (well, the recent economic meltdown in the U.S. has brought more foreigners to China)
Aside from that, I think 13K RMB/month is considered a very high salary for a local Chinese. However, as an expatriate from the U.S. with a degree from a top university, I consider 13K to be on the low side. For expats from India, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Taiwan, and other countries, 13K might be acceptable. It all depends on what you’re used to, what you’re willing to work for, and whether you enjoy your job.
You also have to consider the job market and whether you as an expat is a better hire than a local Chinese. If a company can hire a local Chinese engineer with the same skills and experience, there’s no reason why they should pay an expat a higher salary.
I find that the income gap between locals and expatriates has been closing in recent years. I see a lot of local Chinese professionals earning 10K+ /month as well as many locally hired expatriates making about the same or a little more.
Full expat packages are hard to come by these days. More people fall under the “locally hired expat” category. If you read up on many expatriate websites / forums, you’ll find that 10K/month is about the rough range for locally hired expats, not taking job title, background, experience into consideration.
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:45 pm
hey susan, very insightful post. in fact i wonder where is the best place to look for quality job posts for expats in shanghai?? thx
November 4th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
ive been here a year now, teaching english. i came here hoping to get an engineering job granted at an entry level but thats what i ended up with.
There are tons of jobs available in china look at 51job.com, shanghaiexpat.com, chinasplash. But in most cases they want a chinese, so unless you can speak Good chinese you really dont stand a chance im a clear testament of that. IF you have tons of experience then as a foreigner your needed here, what china lacks are good middle- high level managers
so my advice to everyone wanting to come here, come here with a job offer (especially people lacking experience) or be prepared to come here to teach english…which is ok but if its not part of your career path well ….. anyway good luck.
December 7th, 2008 at 3:59 am
This is very interesting to me. I’m a technical writer living in the US northwest. I’ve thought for some time about going to China after retirement to revive my now almost 40-year-old Mandarin competency (acquired in Taiwan while earning a Ph.D. in Chinese history). Two and one-half years ago I was talking with a US company about training a technical writing group in Shanghai, but the job was delayed, I found an interesting local job, and I backed out. I don’t want to be a long-term expat, because my husband is not interested in China, but I’ve been fascinated with China throughout my adult life, so I would like to spend some time there.
I’m happy to hear that you are working for NI on LabVIEW. I documented a LabVIEW-based product some years ago and enjoyed using it.