Eighty-eight percent of workers are dissatisfied with their salary as inflation raises their cost of living, a new survey by 1111 Job Bank showed yesterday.
The survey showed that 44.32 percent of respondents have not received a pay raise for more than one-and-a-half years and 31.66 percent have not had a pay raise for more than three years.
Inflation, however, has added an extra NT$2,311 to the average monthly spending of workers, with 14.71 percent having to spend NT$5,000 more per month, the survey found.
To cope with the soaring fuel prices, 38.75 percent of respondents said they had stopped driving a car to work, with 52.17 percent using a motorcycle instead, 25.98 percent switching to public transport and 13.58 percent using a bicycle.
Almost 78 percent said they had taken substantial steps to reduce spending in light of rising prices. Cost-cutting measures included avoiding shopping (54.21 percent), eating out less frequently (44.62 percent), buying only daily necessities (39.82 percent), avoiding gatherings or dining with friends (36.69 percent) and switching off unnecessary lights or electrical appliances (35.62 percent).
The survey was conducted between June 11 and June 24 with 1,311 workers and had a margin of error of 2.7 percent.
Meanwhile, another survey conducted by the job bank with 457 businesses during the same period showed that rising commodity prices would hurt their operations during the third quarter of this year, with 55 percent describing the negative impact as moderate to severe.
While 32.39 percent of businesses said they had reduced hiring during the third quarter, 8.11 percent said they would stop hiring permanent employees during that period. However, 31.95 percent of respondents said they would increase the hiring of temporary workers, and 13.73 percent were either considering or have decided to lay off workers.
Another 8.1 percent of businesses were either considering or had decided to cut their employees’ salaries by 9.38 percent on average.
But 15.1 percent were considering or have decided to raise pay to help their employees deal with inflation, the survey found.
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