The number of employees in Taiwan earning less than NT$30,000 (US$948.53) a month has dropped to a record low, as the government continues its efforts to raise the minimum wage nationwide, a survey released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) on Thursday showed.
About 1.84 million employees — 19.81 percent of the workforce — were earning a monthly salary of less than NT$30,000 this year, the first time that the number has dropped below 2 million in the country, the DGBAS said.
Last year, the number of wage earners in that category was 2.11 million, making up 23.03 percent of the total workforce, DGBAS data show.
Photo: CNA
Meanwhile, the number of workers in the NT$50,000 monthly salary bracket climbed to about 2.21 million this year, up from 2.01 million last year, accounting for 23.76 percent of the country’s workforce, the DGBAS said.
While salaries were rising in tandem with domestic economic growth, the government’s minimum wage increases also prompted private-sector employers to raise pay and contributed to the decline in the number of people earning less than NT$30,000 a month, DGBAS Census Department Deputy Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said on Thursday.
The minimum monthly wage this year increased by 4.55 percent to NT$25,250 and the hourly wage rose by 4.76 percent to NT$176 per hour, up from last year’s levels.
According to the DGBAS, in the category of full-time workers earning less than NT$30,000 a month, the number fell this year to about 1.50 million — 16.78 percent of employees in Taiwan — down from 1.78 million last year.
The number of full-time workers receiving more than NT$50,000 per month rose to 2.20 million this year, which was 24.68 percent of the total number of workers, increasing from 2.01 million last year, it said.
The survey also showed that the number of atypical employees — part-time workers and those on temporary or dispatch contracts — had increased to a four-year high of 806,000 as of May, up 8,000 from last year, accounting for 7.01 percent of the total number of employees in the country.
Chen said that as Taiwan emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic spending had increased, driving labor demand in the service sector for atypical employees.
The number of atypical workers in Taiwan had dropped to under 800,000 in the 2020-2022 period, amid lower domestic consumption due to the pandemic, she said, adding that the figure was about 819,000 in 2019.
Some people choose atypical work because it fits in with their other obligations, such as household duties, she added.
TECH BOOST: New TSMC wafer fabs in Arizona are to dramatically improve US advanced chip production, a report by market research firm TrendForce said With Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) pouring large funds into Arizona, the US is expected to see an improvement in its status to become the second-largest maker of advanced semiconductors in 2027, Taipei-based market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said in a report last week. TrendForce estimates the US would account for a 21 percent share in the global advanced integrated circuit (IC) production market by 2027, sharply up from the current 9 percent, as TSMC is investing US$65 billion to build three wafer fabs in Arizona, the report said. TrendForce defined the advanced chipmaking processes as the 7-nanometer process or more
Who would not want a social media audience that grows without new content? During the three years she paused production of her short do-it-yourself (DIY) farmer’s lifestyle videos, Chinese vlogger Li Ziqi (李子柒), 34, has seen her YouTube subscribers increase to 20.2 million from about 14 million. While YouTube is banned in China, her fan base there — although not the size of YouTube’s MrBeast, who has 330 million subscribers — is close to 100 million across the country’s social media platforms Douyin (抖音), Sina Weibo (新浪微博) and Xiaohongshu (小紅書). When Li finally released new videos last week — ending what has
OPEN SCIENCE: International collaboration on math and science will persevere even if the incoming Trump administration imposes strict controls, Nvidia’s CEO said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said on Saturday that global cooperation in technology would continue even if the incoming US administration imposes stricter export controls on advanced computing products. US president-elect Donald Trump, in his first term in office, imposed restrictions on the sale of US technology to China citing national security — a policy continued under US President Joe Biden. The curbs forced Nvidia, the world’s leading maker of chips used for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, to change its product lineup in China. The US chipmaking giant last week reported record-high quarterly revenue on the back of strong AI chip
Qualcomm Inc’s interest in pursuing an acquisition of Intel Corp has cooled, people familiar with the matter said, upending what would have likely been one of the largest technology deals of all time. The complexities associated with acquiring all of Intel has made a deal less attractive to Qualcomm, said some of the people, asking not to be identified discussing confidential matters. It is always possible Qualcomm looks at pieces of Intel instead or rekindles its interest later, they added. Representatives for Qualcomm and Intel declined to comment. Qualcomm made a preliminary approach to Intel on a possible takeover, Bloomberg News and other media
RSS