Hi guys,

Are there any expats out there? What package are you on at the moment and did you make the right decision to move to KL?
Considering $$$ vs Lifestyle, amenities etc.

Non-Malaysians moving into KL as expats?

Doubt if there are many of those in this forum.

This post has been edited by seantang: Mar 22 2007, 12:23 PM

What about, malaysians who have lived/worked abroad then come back?

If Malaysians come back to work in KL, they are locals, not expats.

what expats are you referring ,

cos .. in my expriences an Indian person ( from India ) on IT industry also called as an expats ... but ... the $$$ matter is only "peanuts" and staying in a rental "ROOM"

the package very depends on the industry .. and the background of this expats .. ( with family or without family )

some of the expats that i know .. is drawing about 100K ringgit per month (all In ) ,staying in bangsar or ampang area with driver for himself and one driver for his wife and chirldren , children goes to international school....

so , my friends that is called expats package ...

You should explain in details what do you mean by expats ?

I believe that is correct.....I doubt companies in malaysia be it MNC or local will match my current salary if i were to return home to work, regardless of experience and exposure. No?

Most companies will only give you expat pay if your employment home country is say, Australia (though you're Malaysian but have migrated to Aust for full time work), and you come back to Malaysia on assignment. As far as the company is concerned, they are sending an Australian employee to work as an expat in Malaysia. Your nationality is usually not the consideration.

refer to my experience.. my ex company do hire several foreign consultant.. imost of them from Britain.. so i think they qualify for term expart

about the salary earn... well far above the local can earn..
my consultant (engineer) earn around 70k per moth with transport and accommodations...
even my GM earn only 15-20k pmonth (muahahahha)

the one from India only earn around 10k per month

The best expat package I heard was...
Spore couple. The husband was asked to work at Penang. Drawing S$ monthly salary, daily pardium, car + fuels, apartments, children at international school... The wife was compensated with her 50% that time monthly salary (she was at another company) as she sacrificed her job to move to Penang with he husband!

last time i knew an expat frm amsterdam working on m'sia SMART Tunnel....but salary question is too sensitive 2 ask...

why pay them so high?

My dad's working as an expat for Shell. Shell pays for international school tuition, housing allowance of RM 10K / month. Expats get an expatriate bonus and hardship bonuses added onto their base salaries.

How much in a year? More than what ganz quoted. Of course it varies from field to field and from position to position. American expatriates make good money.

Cos you dont have one here

yea, as simple as that

after my amsterdam frenz went back to their home country...

i knew another expat frm switzerland...n this housewife told me how much she like our country n hope to stay here 4ever....suddenly make me feel so proud of my country....

This post has been edited by Amanda85: Mar 22 2007, 07:15 PM

Foreign expertise comes at a premium, and no one from overseas is willing to do work if you pay them less than they would earn in their home country. Simply nonsensical to do. Besides, you don't see small businesses hiring expats - it's all about the MNCs. They can afford to pay a premium in order to bring in people with knowledge about protocol in the corporation.

honestly i doubt that...

in term of technical knowledge.. few of local can do better.. but the only thing lack is the fact that .. we local look down to local opinion and decision... i've been working with them.. whenever we have a meeting with the Gov agency. what ever this expart said, the gov will node down and agree..

if we local are given the equal oppurtunity... we can do better.. that why,, so much malaysian nowadays start to work oversea esp in middle east.. they also expart (in the middle east)

beside of qualification....u also need credentials....tat's more important...



This post has been edited by Amanda85: Mar 22 2007, 07:41 PM

hmm whats the diff?

To let other believe/trust in you.

I think by far most expats that I know earn between 10k and 50k RM per month nett (all allowances included).

Expats = expatriates = people that have been expatriated to another country for work.

I also knew foreigners that came here from Europe on "local" packages (earning say a mere 5-10k RM per month) but they've done that for experience. Most were young 25-30 and single. They loved it here - since they were treated by Malaysian girls like kings.

I have to admit living in Malaysia as a European expat on a package of less than 10k RM per month is a challenge.

my lecturers from france,teaching in UNIKL-MFI,gaji only rm5k.
all great.except one lecturer.
he's SOOOO clever until i failed math.
surely he cant teach math to U students.

---

Added on March 23, 2007, 2:47 amby the way,two of them are highly qualified.even for international standard.wonder why they came to malaysia.hahaha.
one sure thing,they like malaysia a lot.

This post has been edited by sani_othman: Mar 23 2007, 02:47 AM

Are you sure RM5k only ? That's about 1k Euro only ? How he is going to survive ?

I see some huge numbers here.

Just makes me wonder how you can say an expat struggles to survive for anything less than 10K when a vast majority of malaysians are earning less?

10K seems like a nice large number. Correct me if I'm wrong locals.

Also, is it just me or I notice the trend towards paying expats huge salaries/benefits is diminishing?

ex-pats pay minimum is 5 figures a month, or 6 figures a year.

1. income tax is different for expat..from local .. isn't?
2. RM10k for expat per month.. enough...

Simple. Though expats work overseas, for eg. in Malaysia, their financial commitments are still in their home countries. They are expatriating..., not migrating here.

An Englishman working in KL still needs to service the mortgage on his GBP300,000 house in London for example.

And if he moves from Malaysia to Indonesia later on, don't tell me you think the local Rupiah salary is enough for him?

The whole purpose of an expat program is to remove the financial disadvantages of working overseas, so that the employee is more willing to be moved around.

This post has been edited by seantang: Mar 26 2007, 02:20 PM

well said. I guess I was referring to those not tied down by heavy burdens back home. Say the younger expat generation, without a family etc.

Let me put it in very simplified terms:
- expats can't easily get bank or car loans
- housing for expats is super expensive
- being based outside home country creates hardship
- spouses cannot work (and they have to leave their jobs in home country)
- schooling for expat children is extremely expensive
- cost of goods are generally higher for expats than locals
- expats have financial obligations in home country (mortgages, taxes, etc)

Since most of the companies that hire expats are MNCs, pretty much all have equal employment rights, therefore young workforce should not be financially discriminated (the deals are standard).

I know quite a few expats in KL and 10k RM is a standard amount that is spent on just housing and food and basic entertainment per month. Another say 5-10k goes into mortgage and other financial obligations.

On top of that the deal has to be attractive enough. If you earn 5000 RM as a local in Malaysia would you go to say Gambia in Africa and work as an "expat" for 2000 RM?

for me the issue of how much they earn not that big..
for me.. whether he/she should be in malaysia to work is more likely to be an issue..

in certain area of jobs.. expat experience are much needed.. but it doesn't mean that in every industry we should have expat..

as i post earlier.. some of the expat claimed to be expert but at the end.. he just expert in lying.. the one who work harder and bring lots of idea is malaysian.. but bcoz we in malaysian hardly to buy malaysian idea.. the expat word are much paid more attention

Well what I can say is that you indeed have your point of view. However the perception on the other end may be completely different. So can be the perception and judgement from the management side.

In my field the expat experience is essential and the quality of expat staff is very high. The Malaysian staff are just not at that level yet and need to be trained/led by experienced people.

When applying for a Malaysian work permit - the company must proove it was unable to find a suitable staff to do the job.

It's not a question of what the expat claims, but how the management selects the right people to do the job. If they do not do the job dilligently enough and give the position to underqualified expat based on his/her bragging only - well that's not the expat's fault, is it?

Most of the companies provide free housing to the expat and their family. The spouse can work in Malaysia and the schooling of their children are subsidized by the company as well. What do you mean by "cost of goods are generally higher for expats than locals"? The price tag in the supermarket will not have different price level for the expats & locals.

Perhaps he meant "normal" things like liquor, cigarettes and even cheese are a lot more expensive and limited in choice in M'sia ? Not to mention apparels ...

Well I have seen myself a visa of expat's wife and it stated clearly that ANY FORM OF EMPLOYMENT IS PROHIBITED.
Yes I can agree that some companies provide some form of subsidies on housing, transport or schooling. Not all though.

Yes indeed, these and others like taxis (that almost never want to go by the meter and charge 20 RM to get from BB to KLCC), haggling in shops is almost not possible. It's difficult to get credit cards, almost impossible to get bank loans, very difficult to buy a property, you have to pay high car insurance rates, high prices on document translations/swaps, etc. The police stops you very often for no apparent reasons claiming road offenses (I guess trying to get kopi money).I can go on like that forever. And in most cases when the case you try to sort you get an answer: IMPOSSIBLE or CANNOT or DUNNO because of slight complexity.

Really a life of an expat is a lot more difficult and costs more than same sort of life of locals.

So I guess the ideal situation would be a local with an expats salary?

That's the trick indeed! ;-)

expatriates who working in my company earn usd10k - 15k /month, > 20 years working experience

This post has been edited by forrest: Mar 27 2007, 07:46 PM

a good explanation from Polishman.
i never thought it that way.Now i understand how is my friend who is working as expat feel.Despite the high salary n such perks,he did mention his life doesnt get any better than in Malaysian..

Does it matter if they are young or don't have families?

You get paid for what you know and what you can do. I don't think any MNC can justify paying a single expat employee less compared with an employee with 4 wives and 12 children (for eg)... simply because he's single.

But of course the overall package for singles is lower ie. education and family support allowances will no doubt not apply to singles, but most single expats are smart enough to negotiate higher entertainment, housing and car allowances in lieu.

Obviously it does matter. I'm not referring to the level of pay due to your personal status. I'm referring to the fact that 10000MYR per month is plenty to someone who doesn't have things such as a mortgage, family, kids.

Therefore, 10000 to someone who is single, and 10000 to somone with 3 kids, wife, family to support, doesn't hold the same tangible value when we talk about ones lifestyle and ability to financially support it.

That is what I meant.

But what does that have anything to do with what an employer will pay an employee/ expatriate?

Well, again you perceive 10k RM per month as plenty. Well not to these who can earn much more in home countries (i.e. 6k USD per month) and at the same time being "in-view" - therefore having much better career advancement options.

It is a normal practice in MNCs to have the same "basic salary" ranges irrespective of the marital or financial status for the same positions. Married staff usually get company sponsored schooling and insurance for the family. They don't see the extra benefits in their pockets, although some may be declared in the official records mainly for tax reasons.
This is a very reasonable practice to maintain the equality values which are usually the part of business principles.