Wage hikes not enough
On Wednesday last week, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics released year-end salaries data for last year.
Basic salaries — that is net of bonuses and overtime pay — on average rose by 2.26 percent to NT$41,883.
It was also the first time in 18 years that salaries have grown by more than 2 percent for two consecutive years.
Increases in orders, investment and production levels have resulted in higher profits, and businesses are sharing the proceeds of this economic growth with their workforces.
More importantly, the government’s policy of raising the minimum wage has compelled companies to raise monthly salaries.
However, average salary levels are still only a fraction of neighboring regional economies: 40 percent lower than in South Korea, and 50 percent lower than in Hong Kong and Singapore.
Although the monthly minimum wage has finally broken through the NT$22,000 level — it is set at NT$150 per hour or NT$23,100 per month — Taiwan still languishes in the bottom half of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries for average yearly salary increases.
Taiwan ranks eighth from the bottom out of 29 countries, with average annual growth at 2.22 percent, compared with the OECD average of 4.2 percent.
This shows that average salaries in Taiwan are still too low.
As more Taiwanese manufacturers relocate their production lines from China, it would not be unreasonable to expect average salaries to increase by between 10 and 15 percent.
As salaries grow, this will have the knock-on affect of boosting consumer spending and helping to stimulate demand for domestic tourism.
As such, there is no need to view slightly higher salaries and higher levels of consumption with concern: In fact, it is a positive sign.
Wei Shih-chang
Yilan
Ban the cans
I haven’t seen this issue mentioned anywhere, so I would like to take this opportunity to bring it to light.
According to several US analysts, there is a high probability that COVID-19 might be fecally transferred.
As in Taiwan, many people are still in the habit of putting toilet paper in garbage cans instead of flushing.
I think now would be a good time for the government to start a campaign to ban these cans.
Most likely they are already working on it, but just in case I hope this short message will alert others.
Marc Plumb
Taipei
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