Almost two out of five white-collar workers in Taiwan expect salary increases of more than 10 percent this year, a survey by the Council of Labor Affairs’ online job bank has shown.
The council’s official online job bank eJob last month asked 4,146 office workers about their expectations regarding salary adjustments at their companies and found that more than 1,600, or about 39 percent, expected their salary to increase by more than 10 percent this year, underlining a general feeling of optimism about the job market.
About 3 percent said they expected raises of between 3 percent and 10 percent, while 25 percent, or 1,039 respondents, said they expected a minor upward adjustment of between 1 percent and 3 percent, the survey showed.
About 24 percent, or 1,007 respondents, said that not having their salary cut was good enough, while 9 percent, or 368 respondents, expected their salary to remain stable this year.
Huang Yen-ju (黃彥儒), a manager at eJob, said that in typical surveys, when asked about salary adjustments, respondents were usually more pessimistic than their employers and expected lower raises.
However, almost 40 percent of workers expecting substantial pay raises showed workers were -optimistic about prospects on the job market, he said.
“Worker optimism likely comes from the economy gaining strength and a trend toward businesses lacking enough workers,” he said.
“Workers generally believe that employers are more willing to give raises to retain talent,” Huang said.
He said that businesses in various “hot” industries such as real estate, financial services, and restaurants and hospitality had recently held large career fairs following the Lunar New Year to recruit new talent and this could be a source of workers’ and job seekers’ optimism about the job market.
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