A higher monthly minimum wage of NT$19,273 took effect yesterday, but the focus of the wage debate was already turning to the idea of a living wage.
The new minimum wage, approved by the Cabinet in September last year, represents a 1.2 percent increase from the previous level of NT$19,047. About 1.52 million Taiwanese and 290,000 foreign workers are expected to benefit from the increase.
As the minimum wage was being raised, the Ministry of Labor met with central and local government officials, experts and labor groups on Monday to discuss the living wage concept and agreed that cities and counties could set their own living wage standards.
A living wage is defined as the minimum amount a person must earn to reach a basic standard of living and is usually higher than the minimum wage, which is the minimum employers can legally pay their employees.
Labor ministry official Liu Chuan-min (劉傳名) said that the meeting looked at such questions as whether living wage standards would be enforced and whether they would lead to different pay for the same work in different parts of the nation.
“The setting of a living wage will not be binding for private companies, but it could have an effect on them,” Liu said, possibly by demanding that government contractors pay living wages or using it to push wages higher.
“Taipei has already set its own living wage standard that has benefited about 7,000 workers,” Liu said. “The labor ministry hopes that other local governments can follow suit, with the financial burden of the program dependent on each region’s finances.”
Some labor groups have raised concerns that different living wage standards across Taiwan would lead to a violation of the “equal pay for equal work” principle and cause regional imbalances in where people decide to work and a gap between the city and the countryside.
However, Liu said that the “equal pay for equal work” concept should not affect the living wage discussion.
“Equal pay for equal work involves not giving different pay for the same job, but it [the concept] should not be extended without limit to the setting of regional living wages,” he said.
Taiwan is stepping up plans to create self-sufficient supply chains for combat drones and increase foreign orders from the US to counter China’s numerical superiority, a defense official said on Saturday. Commenting on condition of anonymity, the official said the nation’s armed forces are in agreement with US Admiral Samuel Paparo’s assessment that Taiwan’s military must be prepared to turn the nation’s waters into a “hellscape” for the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Paparo, the commander of the US Indo-Pacific Command, reiterated the concept during a Congressional hearing in Washington on Wednesday. He first coined the term in a security conference last
Prosecutors today declined to say who was questioned regarding alleged forgery on petitions to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) legislators, after Chinese-language media earlier reported that members of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Youth League were brought in for questioning. The Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau confirmed that two people had been questioned, but did not disclose any further information about the ongoing investigation. KMT Youth League members Lee Hsiao-liang (李孝亮) and Liu Szu-yin (劉思吟) — who are leading the effort to recall DPP caucus chief executive Rosalia Wu (吳思瑤) and Legislator Wu Pei-yi (吳沛憶) — both posted on Facebook saying: “I
Sung Chien-liang (宋建樑), who led efforts to recall Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Lee Kun-cheng (李坤城), was released on bail of NT$80,000 today amid outcry over his decision to wear a Nazi armband to questioning the night before. Sung arrived at the New Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office for questioning in a recall petition forgery case last night wearing a red armband bearing a swastika, carrying a copy of Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf and giving a Nazi salute. Sung left the building at 1:15am without the armband and covering the book with his coat. Lee said today that this is a serious
A mountain blaze that broke out yesterday morning in Yangmingshan National Park was put out after five hours, following multi agency efforts involving dozens of fire trucks and helicopter water drops. The fire might have been sparked by an air quality sensor operated by the National Center for High-Performance Computing, one of the national-level laboratories under the National Applied Research Laboratories, Yangmingshan National Park Headquarters said. The Taipei City Fire Department said the fire, which broke out at about 11am yesterday near the mountainous Xiaoyoukeng (小油坑) Recreation Area was extinguished at 4:32pm. It had initially dispatched 72 personnel in four command vehicles, 16
RSS