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.
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