The Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD) said on Friday that the small share of the nation’s GDP growth receieved by employees was the main reason behind their stagnant wages in recent years.
The council said that employee salaries accounted for a record 51.7 percent of GDP in 1990, but the percentage — which is dubbed the “labor share” by the International Labour Organization (ILO) — had declined to 44.6 percent in 2010, lower than the level of both developed and developing countries, as well as emerging economies.
The latest ILO Global Wage Report issued on Dec. 7 last year showed that the average labor share was 75 percent among developed countries between 1970 and 2007. The percentage dropped to 65 percent in 2010.
Among developed countries and emerging economies, the percentage of labor share of GDP was 62 percent from 1970 through 2007.
The labor share dropped to 58 percent in 2010, the report showed.
Meanwhile, according to the ILO and the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics (DGBAS), the growth of wage levels in Taiwan from 2000 through 2011 was lower than in many other countries, if the influence of inflation is not considered.
The ILO report showed that the average wage level around the world rose 22.7 percent from 2000 through 2011, while according to the DGBAS, the nation’s wage levels decreased by around 2.64 percent during the same period.
On a regional basis, average wage levels in Asia rose 94.9 percent from 2000 through 2011, the ILO report said.
Among developed countries, wage levels increased 5 percent from 2000 through 2011, it said.
In 2011, average growth of wage levels worldwide was 1.2 percent, down from 2.1 percent in 2010 and lower than the 3 percent seen in 2007, before the global financial crisis hit in 2008.
If China is not included in the statistics, the ILO said the growth of global wage levels was only 0.2 percent in 2011, compared with 2010’s 1.3 percent and 2007’s 2.3 percent.
The growth of wage levels in Taiwan was 1.29 percent in 2011, compared with 4.34 percent in 2010, the DGBAS said. The government did not make 2007’s figure available.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group