Indonesia was the first country in the world to publish CSR guidelines (Corperate Social Responsibility), that does not mean that the salary level is not competitive - it just means that employees expect to be treated with respect.
The base salaries in Indonesia can be seen in the table below, but please be aware of the fact that these are Jakarta salaries and these are higher than all other Indonesian locations.
Please also notice the difference between high and low salary levels - the wealth distribution in Indonesia is very uneven.
The figures here are initial base salaries, expect yearly increases of around 10% if people perform well.
| Job type | IDR (1000) | USD |
|---|---|---|
| Top management | 15.000 | 1.600 |
| Middle management | 8.000 | 850 |
| Architect | 5.000 | 550 |
| Web programmer | 5.000 | 450 |
| Graphic designer | 4.000 | 450 |
| Book keeper | 3.000 | 320 |
| Secretary | 2.500 | 275 |
| Sales clerk in shop | 1.500 | 175 |
| House mate (excluding food and shelter) | 800 | 90 |
On top of that expect other expenses as well:
| Expense | % of base salary | Comments |
|---|---|---|
| Tax | 15 | Many employers pay the income tax directly so the employee do not have to do it. 15% is average, the higher income the higher tax percent |
| Health insurance | 5 | This kind of service can be bought by insurance companies, in case of small companies it is cheaper to put aside the money |
| Pension | 5 | This kind of service can be bought by insurance companies, in case of small companies it is cheaper to put aside the money |
| 13th month | 8,33 | Every Ramadan or Christmas depending on the faith of the employee, one extra monthly salary is paid out |
Catering
Usually, it makes sense to cater for people during lunch and afternoon break time. This ensures that employees stays at the workplace and will not be delayed afterwards, at the same time catering is a big motivational factor.
Catering is usually IDR 30.000 a day per employee (USD 3,25) this includes coffee and tea as well.
Work hours
40 hours a week is the usual terms a little depending on the business you are in. If you treat people nicely, you can actually expect to get a few more hours from them.
Indonesian employees are not used to unions so motivation and thereby work effort and hours is more a matter of the tone and spirit at the work place.
Do not expect the same flexibility for female employees, in the West the roles of the sexes have kind of vanished, but in Indonesia it is still tradition that the women takes care of the children and serve the food.
The Moslem employees have a break at Fridays from around 11:00 to 13:00 where they go to their local Mosque for the Friday prayers.
Holidays
Indonesia has a yearly calendar where all the holidays are plotted in. Depending on what weekdays the holy days happens to be the particular year, the mandatory holidays vary between 12 and 15.
Usually on top of that the employee contract should state i.e. 20 days so people can take other days off for family gatherings, etc. A lot of Indonesian families have big traditions in connection with births, weddings, funerals or yearly traditions and it is bad policy to "step on" these traditions. When you hire one employee here, you want to make sure that you honor is/hers family at the same time.
Termination
Be aware to state rules for termination of jobs in the employee contract. Normal standard is one month, but do not expect that employees will give you one month notice if they quit their job.
You can hire people for up to 6 month on trial period basis where the notice time can be as low as a week.
