When recently talk has turned to civil servants' wallets, the look on people's faces is not like it was during the stock and real estate boom two years ago. The civil service rice bowl, about which people always said "you can't get filled up, but you won't starve to death either," is getting a new look with the economic downturn. Not only haven't there been layoffs or pay cuts, the year-end bonus and the performance review bonuses will go out as usual, drawing people to compete for their own "iron rice bowl."

The number of people signing up for the national civil service exams clearly reveals this trend. Last year the number signing up for the higher and standard level exams was up 29,000, or 60% over the previous year. The number for the base level special exam doubled.

Are things really so great for civil servants?

"It's like a siege," says one, hitting the nail on the head. "Those outside are struggling to get in, and those inside are waiting for the opportunity to break out." He notes that the special feature of civil service salaries is their stability; and over the last two years, with the society awash in cash, many thought to leave the bureaucracy to get a piece of the pie. But after the money tide receded, people have been looking for a safe haven, and the stable growth in government salaries has people envious.

The pay for a general civil servant is divided into "base salary" and "supplementary salary." It differs according to rating and position. Ratings, from low to high, go from designated rank to recommended rank to selected rank, with the lowest being designated rank-1 and the highest selected rank-14 (equivalent to an office director). Those in supervisory positions get an additional bonus. (See Table I)

There are two fixed bonuses every year, a new year's bonus and a performance review bonus. Further, there are subsidies when they get married, have children, have a funeral for an immediate family member, or send their children to school. They have better health insurance, retirement provisions, and workers' compensation than private sector laborers are entitled to, and they enjoy low-interest housing loans. You can say they are covered from cradle to grave.

However, in the early days when the government moved to Taiwan, finances were scarce, and a "low-pay policy" was adopted for civil servants, with salary mainly just subsistence level. So for a long time civil servants could only grin and bear it.

Salaries only improved beginning with the six year "Civil Service Remuneration Improvement Plan" adopted in 1974. According to statistics of the Central Personnel Administration, pay has increased by 1160% from 1974 to 1991. Another six year plan will begin in 1991, projected to increase salaries about 10% a year, depending upon national income, private sector salaries, price indicators, and economic growth.

Nevertheless, the period from 1973 to today has also been the era of the most rapid economic growth for Taiwan, and private sector salaries have also taken off. Add to this the traditional view that "better to have everyone with just a little than to have inequality," and the result is that, although on average government salaries have gone up more than ten-fold, the gap between higher level and lower level salaries has not reached the proportion for private business.

The "Comparative Chart of Private Sector Salaries and Civil Service Remuneration" done by the CPA in 1989 (See Table II) indicates that low level salaries are about 7% higher than the private sector, but middle and upper level pay lags behind by about 30%.

Let's take some concrete numbers to compare. A college graduate who passes the higher level exam normally starts off as a designated rank-5. According to 1989 standards, his total pay would be NT$22,374. According to the CPA survey of 780 domestic enterprises in eight major sectors, a similar college grad would start at NT$20,817. That's a difference of about NT$2,000 more or less.

But for a recommended rank-9 with at least ten years experience as a section director, pay would be only NT$37,500. For a similar level manager of factory director in the private sector, salary would be at least NT$50,000, not including highly flexible and potentially large incentives and bonuses.

"This has a major impact on government efforts to recruit and retain middle and higher level talent," says CPA Fourth Office director Ou Yu-cheng, in charge of mapping out civil service pay.

"This is especially true for mid-level officials, who don't get so much 'value-added'-- chauffeured automobiles, high social status, power, a sense of accomplishment--as high level officials. On the contrary, they have complex duties, low pay, and slow advancement. It is easy for business to steal away these mid-level officials who have vast administrative experience," says one civil servant. In recent years, the turnover rate for this type of person has been quite high.

As for benefits, for the past several years domestic business has been learning from foreign business and adopting humanitarian management methods. Worker benefits have greatly increased, so civil service benefits are no longer uniquely superior.

Fortunately the government has taken note of this problem, points out Hsu Yu-pu, deputy director general of the CPA. According to stipulations of the "Civil Service Remuneration Law," the highest salaries should be only five times that of the lower. That is, pay for the lowest level, a designated rank-1, should be 1.2 times per capita national income, so that the highest salary, for a selected rank-14, is six times per capita income. "Right now the gap between the two is only 4.49 times," says Hsu, with the main obstacle being demands for fairness by the lower level employees.

"However, after several years of encouragement and work by the government and private sector, people can accept more readily a gap between higher and lower," suggests Hsu, so that "we should be able to achieve the objective" through implementation of the next six-year "Plan for Improving the Structure of Civil Service Salaries."

What makes people concerned is that the explosion in housing prices in Taiwan the last two years has left civil servants frustrated. Although they can get low-interest loans (from NT$1.1-1.3 million depending upon rank), "still, the price of an ordinary three bedroom apartment with a living room and dining room is four or five million, so a million or so is just not enough. Moreover, there are limits on the number who can apply for loans, so you can't necessarily get one," wrote one civil servant in a letter to a newspaper. This feeling of "no place to get a footing" leaves many of her co-workers feeling insecure.

"This is a problem of dignity," says the new chief at the Ministry of Examination Wang Tso-yung. Salary and benefits are not just to give civil servants some guarantees for their daily lives, but also involve their dignity: "Civil servants are representing the government when they do something; if their salary is too low, and the house they have is not a fit house, and the clothes they wear and things they eat are low class, how can they get respect?" he wonders.

It seems that if you want to get civil servants to change their attitude and raise administrative efficiency, then adding a "sweetener" to this rice bowl is an inescapable condition.

[Pictures]

TABLE Ⅰ: Civil Service Pay for 1990

TABLE Ⅱ: Comparison of Private Sector and Civil Service Remuneration[Picture]

TABLE Ⅱ: Comparison of Private Sector and Civil Service Remuneration[Picture].