Local Guide

Fresh Graduates Salary in Indonesia

Hello FlokqJune 4, 2020

After finishing your studies and have graduated, the next step in life would be living your own lives away from the help of your family, finding the ideal job fit for yourself is one of the ways. Whether you’re finding a job based on your educational background or your passion and hobby, you need to know your skills and interest first. Knowing your skills and interests helps you know how you are worth and the career path you choose.

After knowing yourself, you’re probably wondering how much that you are paid due to the skills and educational background that you have. This is where you must do your research on the average salary that fresh graduates get, not only to know your worth but to also have preparations to negotiate the salary for job interviews. The average salary of fresh graduates differs depending on the company, the type of job, and so much more! In Indonesia itself, there are some criteria that determine the fresh graduate salary, here are those criteria.

Location

As you know, Indonesia’s urban development and business companies are not equally distributed throughout the country. Some areas Indonesia aren’t even touched by technologies, while other areas are the heart of business developments like Jakarta and Surabaya. This is what affects the Upah Minimum Provinsi (UMP), the Upah Minimum Regional (UMR), and the Upah Minimum Kota (UMK).

The smaller scale of Upah Minimum is the higher the salary, so UMK is usually higher than UMR, and UMR is usually higher than UMP. The UMK, UMR, and UMP in each location of Indonesia is different, if you’re living in Jakarta, then you’re lucky, Jakarta is a special region, it’s a city but also a province that means that the UMK, UMR, and UMP is the same and is around the average of Rp4.200.000/month. But if you’re living in the city of Tangerang the UMK is around Rp4.600.000/month, with the UMR around Rp4.110.000/month (this includes all the region in Tangerang), and the UMP of Tangerang which is around Rp1.800.000/month (since Tangerang is located in the West Java Province).

Usually, companies take on the UMR as a benchmark for fresh graduates. Some of the highest UMR in Indonesia is in Karawang with the salary around Rp4.600.000/month since its basically an industrial region, coming next is Jakarta, and Surabaya with the total of Rp4.200.000/month each. Surabaya is known to be like Jakarta, it is a developing urban city with many business companies investing there.

Educational Background

In Indonesia, the degree on your last educational background is pretty important. Most companies look for fresh graduates with a bachelor’s degree, while some accept associate degrees. It is known that the higher your educational degree is, the higher the salary. For the bachelor’s degree, the salary ranges around the UMR of the area, so if you’re in Jakarta, you’ll get around Rp4.200.000/month, but if you have an associate degree, the average salary is around Rp3.600.000/month.

Of course in some cases, since associates degree tends to have many working experiences, they could be promoted and get better salaries or if they specialize in a work with a promising experience, they could have salaries that are equal to the bachelor’s degree. Some companies even look at the institution or university that you have graduated, but this doesn’t affect your salary much, it only affects the opportunity that you’ll get in that job.

Companies

Of course, the salary also depends on the type of company you are going to propose to. Usually, multinational companies are willing to pay more than average companies, they also provide many fringe advantages for their workers such as food, insurance, transportation, housing, and more. As for its name, it is a company that is successful in many different countries, that is why they are willing to pay more. For example, Chevron is willing to pay staff in some divisions with a salary range of Rp4.000.000-Rp7.000.000/month or even more!

Sometimes big start-up companies can also pay fresh graduates a great amount of salary. Some pay up to Rp7.000.000-Rp12.000.000/month, but this also depends on the position and skill that the fresh graduates have. Start-up companies that are still small and still growing is still around the basic UMR salary.

Type of Job or Position

Whether you’re going for a generalized job or specialized job, they have their own part in the company. The more part you have for a company, especially the part where you have to take big and many decisions, the more money that the company will pay you. This is because that particular position has a direct impact on the success of the company. The more indirect impact you have to the company the lesser salary you’ll get.

Some of the important positions in a big company are CEO and chief divisions (known as the executive board). In startups every position counts especially the type of job that increases customer engagement and selling, like graphic designers and marketing planning that have the salary around Rp5.000.000-Rp10.000.000/month. But how does a fresh graduate get there? Of course, a fresh graduate being a chief is something impossible but chasing some important positions isn’t, seek as many opportunities in organizations before graduating!

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So, we can conclude that the average salary of a fresh graduate basically depends on its UMR, it is a minimum amount of salary to attain based on the reasons above. These salaries are not included fringe advantages such as Tunjangan Hari Raya (THR) or the bonus on a special national date. Other reasons that may have a contribution to a good salary is the contribution that you are willing to put in the company, good character, and specialized skills. 

When you’re negotiating your salary with the interviewer, remember to be humble, kind, and have ethics. The topic of salaries is quite sensitive and confidential to many people and companies. So, make sure you practice interviewing and negotiating first before attending an interview! We hope you find great opportunities and find the right job for you! If you want to know more about highest paying jobs in Indonesia, click here!