Average regular wages last year reached NT$46,450 (US$1,421) per month, a 2.77 percent increase, the biggest rise in 25 years, while average total wages, including bonuses and overtime pay, climbed 4.39 percent to NT$60,984, the biggest jump in 14 years, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said in a report yesterday.
The manufacturing industry, which hired most workers, was the main wage growth driver, as local tech firms benefited from the boom in demand for electronics used in artificial intelligence, DGBAS Census Department Deputy Director Tan Wen-ling (譚文玲) said.
After adjusting for inflation, real regular wages rose 0.58 percent, the best in four years, while real total wages saw a 2.16 percent uptick, the fastest in six years, the statistics agency said.
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Median wages, a better gauge of typical regular pay, as it is not skewed by extremely high or low wages, was NT$37,274, rising 3.29 percent from the previous year, it said.
By sector, financial and insurance companies recorded the strongest increase at 5.44 percent in take-home pay, as they improved operational and financial performances, and distributed higher bonuses, the report said.
Firms in transportation and warehousing, and wholesale and retail also saw sizeable gains of 3.56 percent and 3.44 percent respectively, it said.
In terms of total monthly compensation, financial and insurance companies topped the ranking, with their wages rising 9.27 percent to NT$107,348.
Meanwhile, total wages for electronic component suppliers recorded a 7.88 percent pickup above the NT$100,000 mark, the report said.
Total compensation at airlines saw a solid 5.4 percent rise to NT$65,305 per month, as Taiwanese like to travel abroad, Tan said, adding that workers at domestic shipping companies also received generous compensations, although they increased less than they did in 2023.
On the other hand, low-paying companies included restaurants and hotels, with monthly pay of NT$34,322, and hairdressers at NT$35,811, the agency said.
Restaurants and hotels also had the lowest median monthly wages at NT$30,960 and NT$31,441 respectively, as they keep relatively high ratios of part-timers, it added.
At the same time, the number of workers hired by the industrial and service sectors stood at 8.45 million last year, representing a 0.41 percent increase, or 34,000 people, from a year earlier, the agency said.
Service providers raised their headcounts by 1.04 percent, while manufacturers shrank their payroll by 0.5 percent, as non-tech sectors in Taiwan took a hit from China’s overproduction and sluggish market demand.
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