The Ministry of Labor on Thursday set this year’s Equal Pay Day at Feb. 24, based on estimates that Taiwanese women needed to work that far into the year to earn the same amount as the average man did last year.
The date of Equal Pay Day is derived from the estimate that Taiwanese women on average have to work 55 more days than men at their current rate of pay to earn the same amount because their salary is 15 percent less than that of their male coworkers.
This year’s figure is better than last year’s, which came four days later, on Feb. 28 (59 extra working days for women). Equal Pay Day in 2013 was worse still, falling on March 2.
Equal Pay Day is a symbolic day that can be different for each nation. Each nation designates its own Equal Pay Day depending on how many more days it takes working women to earn the same salary as their male counterparts.
The concept was established in 1996 by the US National Committee on Pay Equity. It aims to raise public awareness of the gap between men’s and women’s salaries.
Taiwan’s gender wage gap of 15 percent remains smaller than the US’ 17.5 percent. The next Equal Pay Day in the US is on April 14.
Taiwan’s wage gap is also better than Japan’s 33.5 percent and South Korea’s 30.8 percent last year.
While calling for efforts to further close the gap, the Ministry of Labor said the numbers indicate that salary disparity in the workplace has steadily improved since 2003, when the gender pay gap was at 20.1 percent.
Taipei and New Taipei City government officials are aiming to have the first phase of the Wanhua-Jungho-Shulin Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) line completed and opened by 2027, following the arrival of the first train set yesterday. The 22km-long Light Green Line would connect four densely populated districts in Taipei and New Taipei City: Wanhua (萬華), Jhonghe (中和), Tucheng (土城) and Shulin (樹林). The first phase of the project would connect Wanhua and Jhonghe districts, with Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall and Chukuang (莒光) being the terminal stations. The two municipalities jointly hosted a ceremony for the first train to be used
MILITARY AID: Taiwan has received a first batch of US long-range tactical missiles ahead of schedule, with a second shipment expected to be delivered by 2026 The US’ early delivery of long-range tactical ballistic missiles to Taiwan last month carries political and strategic significance, a military source said yesterday. According to the Ministry of National Defense’s budget report, the batch of military hardware from the US, including 11 sets of M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and 64 MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems, had been scheduled to be delivered to Taiwan between the end of this year and the beginning of next year. However, the first batch arrived last month, earlier than scheduled, with the second batch —18 sets of HIMARS, 20 MGM-140 missiles and 864 M30
Representative to the US Alexander Yui delivered a letter from the government to US president-elect Donald Trump during a meeting with a former Trump administration official, CNN reported yesterday. Yui on Thursday met with former US national security adviser Robert O’Brien over a private lunch in Salt Lake City, Utah, with US Representative Chris Stewart, the Web site of the US cable news channel reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter. “During that lunch the letter was passed along, and then shared with Trump, two of the sources said,” CNN said. O’Brien declined to comment on the lunch, as did the Taipei
A woman who allegedly attacked a high-school student with a utility knife, injuring his face, on a Taipei metro train late on Friday has been transferred to prosecutors, police said yesterday. The incident occurred near MRT Xinpu Station at about 10:17pm on a Bannan Line train headed toward Dingpu, New Taipei City police said. Before police arrived at the station to arrest the suspect, a woman surnamed Wang (王) who is in her early 40s, she had already been subdued by four male passengers, one of whom was an off-duty Taipei police officer, police said. The student, 17, who sustained a cut about
RSS