The Executive Yuan has agreed to raise the salaries of civil servants, military personnel and public school teachers by 3 percent next year, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday.
Cho told reporters on the sidelines of an event in Pingtung County that he hoped the government’s wage hike would prompt the private sector to also raise salaries and bolster the nation’s competitiveness.
The wage increase assessment for next year has been completed and the Cabinet would make an official announcement at an appropriate time, he said.
Photo: Lo Hsin-chen, Taipei Times
Given that the local economy is in recovery, the Cabinet believes that civil servants, military personnel and public school teachers should also benefit, he said.
Cabinet spokesman Chen Shi-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference earlier this month that Cho had instructed the Directorate-General of Personnel Administration to immediately begin assessments due to the economic rebound.
The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) forecasts that the nation’s export-oriented economy would grow 3.94 percent this year on the back of a rebound in global demand, faster than last year’s 1.28 percent.
The Executive Yuan increased salaries for civil servants, military personnel and public school teachers by 4 percent this year.
An Executive Yuan official said that compared with the 4 percent rise, the 3 percent increase might seem mild, but it would be the second consecutive year that wages would be raised.
The official said the Cabinet also took inflation into account before deciding on the latest hike.
The DGBAS forecasts that the consumer price index (CPI) would grow 2.07 percent this year, moderating from a 2.49 percent increase last year.
In the first six months of this year, the CPI rose 2.27 percent year-on-year, higher than the central bank’s 2 percent alert level.
Many employees have urged their employers to raise wages as their income has been eroded by inflation.
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in
COMBAT READINESS: The military is reviewing weaponry, personnel resources, and mobilization and recovery forces to adjust defense strategies, the defense minister said The military has released a photograph of Minister of National Defense Wellington Koo (顧立雄) appearing to sit beside a US general during the annual Han Kuang military exercises on Friday last week in a historic first. In the photo, Koo, who was presiding over the drills with high-level officers, appears to be sitting next to US Marine Corps Major General Jay Bargeron, the director of strategic planning and policy of the US Indo-Pacific Command, although only Bargeron’s name tag is visible in the seat as “J5 Maj General.” It is the first time the military has released a photo of an active
CHANGE OF MIND: The Chinese crew at first showed a willingness to cooperate, but later regretted that when the ship arrived at the port and refused to enter Togolese Republic-registered Chinese freighter Hong Tai (宏泰號) and its crew have been detained on suspicion of deliberately damaging a submarine cable connecting Taiwan proper and Penghu County, the Coast Guard Administration said in a statement yesterday. The case would be subject to a “national security-level investigation” by the Tainan District Prosecutors’ Office, it added. The administration said that it had been monitoring the ship since 7:10pm on Saturday when it appeared to be loitering in waters about 6 nautical miles (11km) northwest of Tainan’s Chiang Chun Fishing Port, adding that the ship’s location was about 0.5 nautical miles north of the No.
RSS