The average monthly wage in June rose 3 percent from a year earlier to NT$46,486, while the average total monthly wage — including overtime pay, performance-based commissions and bonuses — gained 3.17 percent to NT$55,447, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
The improvement mainly came from pay increases, the statistics agency said, adding that it stayed in positive territory even after factoring in inflation.
The agency said it expects the advance to be sustainable, as the nation steadily emerges from a global economic slowdown.
Photo: Lam Yik Fei, Bloomberg
Taiwan has seen real wages grow for three months in a row, indicating that people have enjoyed the benefits of economic growth, the DGBAS said.
The economy is picking up steam, after expanding 6.5 percent and 5.09 percent year-on-year in the first and second quarters respectively, it said.
With GDP forecast to grow 3.99 percent this year, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) last month announced plans to raise wages for government employees by 3 percent next year.
The premier urged the private sector to follow suit in raising wages.
However, employment data showed that the number of workers hired by manufacturers dropped by 2,000 in June, after ending 21 months of decline in May.
The DGBAS said that there was no need to worry about the mild retreat, as the high sales season for technology products is approaching.
A breakdown by sector showed that financial and insurance companies offered the highest average monthly wage of NT$70,741 in June, followed by video-content creators and telecom operators at NT$67,689, and electricity and gas suppliers at NT$66,911.
Nursery schools and kindergartens paid the lowest regular average wage of NT$30,323 per month, followed by restaurants and hotels at NT$34,609, and other service providers at NT$35,841, it said.
In terms of total compensation, financial and insurance companies also topped the survey at NT$90,631 a month, followed by manufacturers of computers and optical devices at NT$84,392, and electricity and gas suppliers at NT$80,077, it said.
In the first six months, regular monthly wages averaged NT$46,227 while overall compensation stood at NT$64,084, increasing 2.56 percent and 3.74 percent respectively from year-earlier levels, the agency said.
The real pace of gains tapered to 0.28 percent and 1.43 percent each after adjustments for inflation, it said.
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