Concerned about the widening gap between the rich and the poor in Taiwan, several civic groups yesterday called on the government to take action.
“President Ma Ying-jeou [馬英九] said the income gap between the country’s rich and poor is not too bad and that we’re still doing fine after the latest figures on the economy were released last week,” Alliance for a Fair Tax Reform (AFTR) convener Wang Jung-chang (王榮璋) told a news conference. “I wonder how bad is ‘bad,’ in his view.”
Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting, and Statistics figures show that the average annual income of the top 5 percent in the country was 66 times more than the bottom 5 percent last year.
As a means to address inequality, the groups called on the government to raise the minimum wage, collect more taxes from the rich and void the legally defined income policy.
Turning to the minimum wage of NT$17,280, Taiwan Labour Front chairman Wu Yu-hsiang (吳玉祥) said it was “far below sufficient for a worker to lead a decent life and to raise his or her family.”
“I would recommend the Council of Labor Affairs reset the minimum wage to at least NT$22,000 per month,” he said.
Youth Labor Union 95 member Hu Meng-yu (胡孟瑀) said the NT$17,280 monthly wage was even lower than the NT$22,000 monthly wage that the Executive Yuan set for some temporary employment projects.
Meanwhile, AFTR spokesman Sun I-hsin (孫一信) said he was worried that the gap would only increase because the government has implemented many tax breaks for big businesses.
“This is only going to make the rich richer, while the poor get even poorer,” he said. “The government should stop cutting taxes for the rich and collect more from them — this is more just.”
Taiwan Women’s Link chairwoman Lin Lu-hung (林綠紅) said the government should void the “legally defined income” policy, which considers people aged between 16 to 65 who are not working as receiving a NT$17,280 monthly income.
“Because of the policy, many families that are under the poverty line are turned down when applying for welfare subsidies since these non-existent incomes are factored in for when calculating the combined household income for these families,” Lin said.
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