About 31 percent of all workers in Taiwan earned less than NT$30,000 per month this year, falling for the eighth consecutive year, according to the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).
The agency this week published the results of its yearly income survey, conducted in mid-May, which found that 31.47 percent of 8.62 million people in regular employment, or 2.71 million people, earned less than NT$30,000, compared with 44.39 percent in 2009.
Premier William Lai (賴清德) earlier this week said that low-income jobs have been on the decline over the past few years and account for only about 30 percent of total employees.
The decline in low-income earners was due to efforts to boost the economy and improve the job market, Lai said.
DGBAS deputy head Tsai Hung-kun (蔡鴻坤) said that the number of workers who earned less than NT$30,000 a month this year fell by about 220,000, or 2.86 percent, from last year.
The downtrend has continued for eight years in a row, which shows that the wage structure in Taiwan has been changing, Tsai said.
The data also showed that 18.94 percent of employees earned more than NT$50,000 a month this year, compared with 15.99 percent in 2009, marking the eighth consecutive yearly increase.
Tsai said this showed that salaries in Taiwan are on the rise.
Monthly basic wages rose 1.63 percent from last year to NT$38,656, the data showed.
So-called “atypical employees,” who work on a part-time basis or on temporary contracts, totaled 805,000 this year, or 7.11 percent of the total workforce, the highest level to date and up 13,000 from last year, the data showed.
Despite the increase in atypical employees, their share in the total workforce was still lower than in neighboring countries such as Japan and South Korea, where the percentage topped 20 percent, the agency said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
Former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) departed for Europe on Friday night, with planned stops in Lithuania and Denmark. Tsai arrived at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday night, but did not speak to reporters before departing. Tsai wrote on social media later that the purpose of the trip was to reaffirm the commitment of Taiwanese to working with democratic allies to promote regional security and stability, upholding freedom and democracy, and defending their homeland. She also expressed hope that through joint efforts, Taiwan and Europe would continue to be partners building up economic resilience on the global stage. The former president was to first
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
The Taipei District Court sentenced babysitters Liu Tsai-hsuan (劉彩萱) and Liu Jou-lin (劉若琳) to life and 18 years in prison respectively today for causing the death of a one-year-old boy in December 2023. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office said that Liu Tsai-hsuan was entrusted with the care of a one-year-old boy, nicknamed Kai Kai (剴剴), in August 2023 by the Child Welfare League Foundation. From Sept. 1 to Dec. 23 that year, she and her sister Liu Jou-lin allegedly committed acts of abuse against the boy, who was rushed to the hospital with severe injuries on Dec. 24, 2023, but did not
RSS