The leaders of two major business associations yesterday urged the government to respect market mechanisms and corporate autonomy when promoting wage growth.
“I believe [wages] would rise naturally if the government focuses more on economic stimulus plans and tries harder to devise good [economic] policies,” General Chamber of Commerce chairman Lai Cheng-yi (賴正鎰) said.
He was responding to strategies proposed by the Cabinet earlier in the day to resolve the problem of low wages.
The strategies, aimed at increasing the wages of low-paid workers, include raising the minimum wage for government employees to NT$30,000 a month, encouraging or pressing private firms to follow suit, and raising the hourly minimum wage from NT$140 to NT$150.
However, Lai said that “this is not a case of the government simply throwing out numbers and then [wages] moving higher. I do not think this will work.”
Also, wages in the services sector are not as low as the government thinks they are, he said, adding that the private sector is aware that it cannot hire people by offering low wages.
Taipei-based Chinese National Association of Industry and Commerce chairman Lin Por-fong (林伯豐) said improving the investment environment is what the government should set as its top priority.
He urged the government to allow enterprises to run themselves freely.
“Every company has its own management approach. If the government interferes with this, and demands things that it cannot achieve itself, it would only intensify conflict between the management and employees,” he said.
In such a scenario, some companies might end up having to reduce the number of employees or even close down, let alone raise wages, Lin said.
Lai and Lin said they support the government’s efforts to raise the wages of low-paid contract workers in the public sector, but added that striving for economic growth is the fundamental solution.
Wages have remained relatively stagnant when inflation is factored in after being driven down during the 2008 to 2009 global financial crisis.
Average real monthly earnings, which include irregular income, such as overtime and bonuses, and are adjusted for inflation, rose to an all-time first-quarter high of NT$59,852, but that was still only 2.4 percent higher than real monthly earnings of NT$58,447 in the first quarter of 2000.
POWERING UP: PSUs for AI servers made up about 50% of Delta’s total server PSU revenue during the first three quarters of last year, the company said Power supply and electronic components maker Delta Electronics Inc (台達電) reported record-high revenue of NT$161.61 billion (US$5.11 billion) for last quarter and said it remains positive about this quarter. Last quarter’s figure was up 7.6 percent from the previous quarter and 41.51 percent higher than a year earlier, and largely in line with Yuanta Securities Investment Consulting Co’s (元大投顧) forecast of NT$160 billion. Delta’s annual revenue last year rose 31.76 percent year-on-year to NT$554.89 billion, also a record high for the company. Its strong performance reflected continued demand for high-performance power solutions and advanced liquid-cooling products used in artificial intelligence (AI) data centers,
SIZE MATTERS: TSMC started phasing out 8-inch wafer production last year, while Samsung is more aggressively retiring 8-inch capacity, TrendForce said Chipmakers are expected to raise prices of 8-inch wafers by up to 20 percent this year on concern over supply constraints as major contract chipmakers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and Samsung Electronics Co gradually retire less advanced wafer capacity, TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. It is the first significant across-the-board price hike since a global semiconductor correction in 2023, the Taipei-based market researcher said in a report. Global 8-inch wafer capacity slid 0.3 percent year-on-year last year, although 8-inch wafer prices still hovered at relatively stable levels throughout the year, TrendForce said. The downward trend is expected to continue this year,
Vincent Wei led fellow Singaporean farmers around an empty Malaysian plot, laying out plans for a greenhouse and rows of leafy vegetables. What he pitched was not just space for crops, but a lifeline for growers struggling to make ends meet in a city-state with high prices and little vacant land. The future agriculture hub is part of a joint special economic zone launched last year by the two neighbors, expected to cost US$123 million and produce 10,000 tonnes of fresh produce annually. It is attracting Singaporean farmers with promises of cheaper land, labor and energy just over the border.
US actor Matthew McConaughey has filed recordings of his image and voice with US patent authorities to protect them from unauthorized usage by artificial intelligence (AI) platforms, a representative said earlier this week. Several video clips and audio recordings were registered by the commercial arm of the Just Keep Livin’ Foundation, a non-profit created by the Oscar-winning actor and his wife, Camila, according to the US Patent and Trademark Office database. Many artists are increasingly concerned about the uncontrolled use of their image via generative AI since the rollout of ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools. Several US states have adopted
RSS