While the primary income for full-time workers in Taiwan is NT$37,413 (US$1,140) a month on average, 3.35 million employees, or 37.93 percent of the total number of employees, earned a monthly salary of less than NT$30,000, according to a recent report from this year’s manpower utilization survey.
The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) conducts the manpower utilization survey in May every year to exclude the seasonal effects of the graduation season and Lunar New Year.
According to this year’s survey, among the nation’s 8.48 million employees, the primary monthly income for full-time workers was NT$37,413 on average, an increase of NT$528 from the same period last year.
Primary income excludes non-regular income, such as year-end bonuses, performance bonuses and overtime pay.
Of the total number of employees, 5.46 million, or 64.42 percent, made a monthly salary of more than NT$30,000, an increase of 2.18 percentage points from the same period last year.
The number of employees with a monthly income of more than NT$50,000 was 1.54 million, or 18.16 percent of the total, which represents an increase of 0.09 percentage points year-on-year.
The number of those earning less than NT$30,000 declined by 2.07 percentage points year-on-year, the report said. The survey also found there were 420,000 unemployed people and that 51.7 percent of about 207,000 unemployed people who had been given job offers turned them down because they considered the pay too low.
In May, there were 11.18 million employees, including 781,000 atypical workers who were employed under temporary, part-time or outsourcing contracts, or 6.98 percent of the total, the survey found.
Beijing could eventually see a full amphibious invasion of Taiwan as the only "prudent" way to bring about unification, the US Department of Defense said in a newly released annual report to Congress. The Pentagon's "Annual Report to Congress: Military and Security Developments Involving the People's Republic of China 2025," was in many ways similar to last year’s report but reorganized the analysis of the options China has to take over Taiwan. Generally, according to the report, Chinese leaders view the People's Liberation Army's (PLA) capabilities for a Taiwan campaign as improving, but they remain uncertain about its readiness to successfully seize
Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years. The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on today, Dec. 25. The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known. Back then the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That
Taiwan has overtaken South Korea this year in per capita income for the first time in 23 years, IMF data showed. Per capita income is a nation’s GDP divided by the total population, used to compare average wealth levels across countries. Taiwan also beat Japan this year on per capita income, after surpassing it for the first time last year, US magazine Newsweek reported yesterday. Across Asia, Taiwan ranked fourth for per capita income at US$37,827 this year due to sustained economic growth, the report said. In the top three spots were Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong, it said. South
Snow fell on Yushan (Jade Mountain, 玉山) yesterday morning as a continental cold air mass sent temperatures below freezing on Taiwan’s tallest peak, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Snowflakes were seen on Yushan’s north peak from 6:28am to 6:38am, but they did not fully cover the ground and no accumulation was recorded, the CWA said. As of 7:42am, the lowest temperature recorded across Taiwan was minus-5.5°C at Yushan’s Fengkou observatory and minus-4.7°C at the Yushan observatory, CWA data showed. On Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County, a low of 1.3°C was recorded at 6:39pm, when ice pellets fell at Songsyue Lodge (松雪樓), a