Hon Hai Precision Industry Co chairman Terry Gou (郭台銘), who is seeking the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) presidential nomination, on Wednesday proposed a series of measures to address the problem of salary stagnation in Taiwan.
In a Facebook post, Gou said that if elected president, he would set up a Web site that would show listed companies’ salary levels and profitability.
That would give jobseekers a better idea of which companies are willing to share their profits with their employees by offering good pay, said Gou, the wealthiest man in the nation.
Photo: Tsai Meng-shang, Taipei Times
Such transparency would also prompt low-paying employers to raise salaries, he added.
“I have repeatedly said that profitable companies should raise their employees’ salaries, which would help end the long-term problem of salary stagnation,” Gou said.
Companies that fail to do so should not be allowed to bid for government contracts and should be excluded from government incentives and subsides that are aimed at encouraging industrial transformation, he said.
Raising salaries would allow Taiwan to retain talent and strengthen its economy, Gou said.
The government should also help enterprises that are in the red by creating a more business-friendly environment, and then push them to raise salaries, Gou said, adding that, if elected president, he would also tighten control of the property market so that companies’ earnings would not be eroded by high property prices.
Gou said that he would also encourage greater cooperation between the business and academic sectors in an effort to nurture talent to meet the needs of enterprises.
According to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), the average regular wage in Taiwan rose 2.25 percent in March from a year earlier, after a 1.86 percent year-on-year increase in February.
However, after inflationary adjustments, real wages in March were at the same level as 17 years earlier, DGBAS data showed.
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