Government employees will receive a 3 percent pay raise effective July 1 should an extra budget request of NT$11 billion (US$ 380.56 million) be approved by lawmakers.
The proposal will benefit 1.25 million people, including civil servants, school teachers, military personnel and 430,000 retired civil servants who opted for monthly pensions, Central Personnel Administration Minister Wu Tai-cheng (吳泰成) said.
The last time public sector employees got a pay raise was in 2005.
Wu said that offering a 3 percent pay raise in the middle of the year as opposed to the start of the fiscal year in January was a “necessary” and “fairly reasonable” adjustment in view of rising economic growth and tax revenues since the fourth quarter of 2009 and pay raises in the private sector.
Wu said surveys showed the national average wage in industrial and service sectors increased by 2.94 percent from 2005 to last year and by 6.05 percent in the first two months of this year compared with the same period last year.
However, in August last year, the administration suggested a pay freeze for government employees for this year, saying a pay raise would impose a further financial burden on government at all levels, drive up the minimum wage, increase personnel cost of businesses and worsen unemployment.
The Cabinet meeting yesterday also approved a budget request of NT$4.8 billion for monthly pensions to be distributed to more low-income households when the lower poverty line in the Social Assistance Act (社會救助法) takes effect on July 1, as well as an extra budget request of NT$ 2.9 billion for tuition subsidies for children under the age of five and senior high vocational school students from economically disadvantaged families.
Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics Minister Shih Su-mei (石素梅) said the exact forecast for economic growth contributed by the three additionally requested budget proposals will be released at the end of this month.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Progressive Party has linked the pay raise proposal with the legislative and presidential elections scheduled for January and said that writing an extra budget for such a purpose was a violation of Article 79 of the Budget Act (預算法).
Minister of Finance Lee Sush-der (李述德) said the extra budget of NT$18.7 billion needed for the three proposals would be funded by an increase in surplus from state-owned enterprises and state-owned shares as well as tax revenues in the wake of an economic boom.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique