The Ministry of Labor yesterday announced that the minimum hourly and monthly wages would be raised to NT$150 and NT$23,100, marking an increase of 5 percent and 7.14 percent respectively, after concluding a record-long deliberation with representatives of workers’ groups, companies and academics.
The new wages are to take effect on Jan. 1, the ministry said.
“The results are unacceptable,” said Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions president Chuang Chueh-an (莊爵安), who represented workers at the meeting. “The ministry evidently favored employers [in its decision].”
Photo: Huang Yao-cheng, Taipei Times
Workers’ groups had called for the minimum monthly wage to be increased from NT$22,000 to NT$28,862 and for the minimum hourly rate to be raised from NT$140 to NT$182.
Chinese National Federation of Industries standing director Sam Ho (何語), who represented employers at the meeting, said that companies’ overhead is estimated to increase by NT$39 billion per year as a result of the salary adjustments.
That could be the last straw, causing many small and medium-sized companies to fold, which would affect youth employment, he said.
Companies are not optimistic about the state of the economy in the latter half of this year due to the increased wages, he added.
With the global economy shaken by an intensifying US-China trade war and the depreciation of the Turkish lira, Taiwanese industries might be hit hard, he said.
While companies are not happy with the results, they will have to comply with the ministry’s final decision, Ho said.
Employers should take care of their employees, but whether employers could manage a sustainable business model should also be factored into the equation, especially in Taiwan, where small and medium-sized enterprises comprise 98 percent of the industrial sector, he added.
The service sector could be hit especially hard, as higher basic wages would in turn drive up prices, as businesses try to compensate for additional expenses, he said.
‘GLOBAL WARNING’: The infiltration is not just a local problem, as Beijing has been deploying the same tactics worldwide against Western democracies, a report said Between 50,000 and 100,000 Chinese spies are operating in Taiwan, far more than the National Security Bureau’s previous estimate of 5,000, German journalist and author Jurgen Kremb said on Monday. Kremb presented his research, titled “The War of Spies: How China’s Intelligence Services Are Infiltrating Taiwan — and What Europe Must Learn from It,” at a joint event held by the Taiwan offices of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation and the European Values Center for Security Policy. The report was published in June in the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau’s Prospect & Exploration Monthly (展望與探索月刊). By spies, he said he was referring to informants,
PRICE STABILIZATION: The Ministry of Economic Affairs has urged the legislature to support the Cabinet’s supplementary budget for state-owned energy companies State-owned oil supplier CPC Corp, Taiwan (CPC, 台灣中油) on Saturday announced that it would raise domestic gasoline prices by NT$0.7 (US$0.02) per liter and diesel prices by NT$0.6 per liter this week after international crude oil prices rose above US$100 per barrel last week. Formosa Petrochemical Corp (台塑石化) yesterday said that it matched CPC’s price adjustments for this week. The decisions end a six-week period during which CPC and Formosa kept fuel prices in Taiwan unchanged. Retail gasoline prices this week would rise to NT$31.2, NT$32.7 and NT$34.7 per liter for 92, 95 and 98-octane unleaded gasoline respectively at CPC
More than 100 Taiwanese-Americans, Taiwanese lawmakers and members of civic groups on Saturday marched through New York City to call for Taiwan’s participation in the UN, with Marshall Island Permanent Representative to the UN John Silk joining the event to show support. Participants chanted: “UN for Taiwan” and “Keep Taiwan Free” as they marched through central Manhattan, passing Times Square and Bryant Park before ending near the New York Public Library. The annual march brought together Taiwanese community groups from across the US East Coast. Silk expressed hope that Taiwan would one day be able to participate in UN meetings
Two aides at independent Legislator May Chin’s (高金素梅) office were ordered detained incommunicado yesterday in a broadening probe into alleged Chinese espionage by Chin’s former chief of staff, Chang Chun-chieh (張俊傑). The move to hold Lin I-chun (林怡君) and current chief of staff Chen Chih-huang (陳智葟) in custody came four days after Chang, indicted on corruption charges, cut off his electronic monitoring wristband and jumped bail. The High Prosecutors’ Office said that it believes Chang had developed a Chinese spy ring, which might have operated for more than a decade, with funding from China, and that Lin and Chen were suspected of
RSS