The government prioritizes raising incomes over changing definitions, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said yesterday after Minister of Labor Ho Pei-shan (何佩珊) proposed redefining low-wage as making less than NT$31,000 per month.
The Ministry of Labor proposed to define low-wage as an amount equal to two-thirds of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) nations’ median total income.
The Cabinet meeting on the economy had been lively due to disagreement on definitional matters, Cho said, adding that they were not able to reconcile the well-cited, but opposing arguments over whether the median of total income or regular income should be used in the calculation of the threshold for low-income workers.
Photo: CNA
The ministry’s preoccupation with correcting past research methods was at odds with the conference’s agenda of finding ways to increase the wages of Taiwanese, he said.
The meeting would reconvene next week.
An overwhelming majority of developed countries have established governmental definitions for low-wage workers as key to good policymaking, Chinese Culture University Department of Labor and Human Resources professor Lee Chien-hung (李健鴻) said.
The characteristics and problems of an economic group could not be properly researched or a solution arrived at if no clear definitions are given, he said.
Taiwan should emulate wage transparency laws in the US and the EU to require employers to disclose salaries upon a jobseeker’s request to pressure businesses into paying more, Lee said.
Medium-skilled foreign workers should be included in wage-boosting policies, as large swathes of the economy depend on their labor, he said.
The willingness of officials to compare Taiwanese wages to OECD standards should be applauded as a first step toward dealing with the nation’s shrinking salaries, Taiwan Labor Front secretary-general Son Yu-liam (孫友聯) said.
One of the most effective ways to increase the national income would be to amend the Minimum Wage Act (最低工資法) to enable pre-emptive wage adjustments ahead of negative developments, he said.
The decision to set the minimum wage at NT$28,950 per month for next year showed there is much room for improvement in the government’s handling of labor issues, Son said, adding that the administration’s simultaneous pursuit of ever more foreign workers and higher wages is a self-defeating contradiction that needs to be resolved.
Foreign workers would be paid the same as Taiwanese if enterprises are truly suffering a labor shortage, he said.
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