The gender pay gap in Taiwan showed no improvement last year, with women earning NT$283 per hour on average, or 85.4 percent of the average hourly income of men, the Ministry of Labor said on Thursday.
The ministry has conducted an annual survey of the gender pay gap since 2002, with the calculations based on profession, seniority, education level and job performance, and include overtime, the ministry said.
Women would have to work for 54 extra days to earn the same amount as men, placing the equal payday on Feb. 23, the ministry said.
The equal payday is a symbolic date indicating how far into the following year women would have to work to compensate for wages lost to gender-based income inequality.
Following revisions to statistical methodology, the 2016 gender pay gap of 52 days was increased to 54 days, indicating that the gender income equality did not improve or worsen in the past two years, it said.
Overall, the statistical trend suggests that the gender pay gap has been narrowing over the past decade, the ministry said, adding that the gender difference in income had shrunk by 4 percentage points, or the equivalent of 15 work days.
The nation’s gender pay gap last year was smaller than that of Japan (32.3 percent) and the US (18.9 percent), while the latest available figure for South Korea was 34.1 percent in 2017, the ministry said.
However, South Korea made the most progress among the four nations in narrowing the gender pay gap over the past decade, with the figure shrinking by 5.1 percent, compared with Japan’s 4.1 percent and the US’ 1.2 percent, the ministry said.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake struck off the coast of Yilan County at 8:39pm tonight, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, with no immediate reports of damage or injuries. The epicenter was 38.7km east-northeast of Yilan County Hall at a focal depth of 98.3km, the CWA’s Seismological Center said. The quake’s maximum intensity, which gauges the actual physical effect of a seismic event, was a level 4 on Taiwan’s 7-tier intensity scale, the center said. That intensity level was recorded in Yilan County’s Nanao Township (南澳), Hsinchu County’s Guansi Township (關西), Nantou County’s Hehuanshan (合歡山) and Hualien County’s Yanliao (鹽寮). An intensity of 3 was
Instead of focusing solely on the threat of a full-scale military invasion, the US and its allies must prepare for a potential Chinese “quarantine” of Taiwan enforced through customs inspections, Stanford University Hoover fellow Eyck Freymann said in a Foreign Affairs article published on Wednesday. China could use various “gray zone” tactics in “reconfiguring the regional and ultimately the global economic order without a war,” said Freymann, who is also a nonresident research fellow at the US Naval War College. China might seize control of Taiwan’s links to the outside world by requiring all flights and ships entering or leaving Taiwan
The first of 10 new high-capacity trains purchased from South Korea’s Hyundai Rotem arrived at the Port of Taipei yesterday to meet the demands of an expanding metro network, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. The train completed a three-day, 1,200km voyage from the Port of Masan in South Korea, the company said. Costing NT$590 million (US$18.79 million) each, the new six-carriage trains feature a redesigned interior based on "human-centric" transportation concepts, TRTC said. The design utilizes continuous longitudinal seating to widen the aisles and optimize passenger flow, while also upgrading passenger information displays and driving control systems for a more comfortable
Taiwan's first indigenous defense submarine, the SS-711 Hai Kun (海鯤, or Narwhal), departed for its 13th sea trial at 7am today, marking its seventh submerged test, with delivery to the navy scheduled for July. The outing also marked its first sea deployment since President William Lai (賴清德) boarded the submarine for an inspection on March 19, drawing a crowd of military enthusiasts who gathered to show support. The submarine this morning departed port accompanied by CSBC Corp’s Endeavor Manta (奮進魔鬼魚號) uncrewed surface vessel and a navy M109 assault boat. Amid public interest in key milestones such as torpedo-launching operations and overnight submerged trials,
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