Median annual earnings reached NT$470,000 (US$15,255) last year, the highest in the past six years, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said on Monday.
Median earnings, which includes regular salary plus bonuses, overtime pay and other irregular income, rose due to a stable economy in the first half of last year and pay raises, the agency said.
Median annual earnings were NT$436,000, NT$438,000, NT$449,000, NT$458,000 and NT$461,000 from 2012 to 2016 respectively, DGBAS data showed.
The agency did not provide figures before 2012, nor did it provide inflation-adjusted data to allow for a clearer comparison of real earnings growth.
Median earnings reflect the halfway point of income earners. It is usually lower than average earnings, because averages are affected by extremely high incomes at the top of the chart.
The median annual salary last year drifted further from the average, as high-salary jobs boosted the average, Census Department Deputy Director Pan Ning-hsin (潘寧馨) said yesterday.
The average salary rose 2.56 percent year-on-year to NT$600,000, Pan told the Taipei Times by telephone.
The gap between median and average incomes has widened from NT$111,000 in 2012 to NT$130,000 last year, Pan said.
The ratio of the median to the average salary shrank from 0.797-1 in 2012 to 0.783-1 last year, the lowest level in the past six years, Pan added.
That does not mean the distribution of income is becoming less even, as employees within the first and ninth deciles — 10 groups into which the nation’s 7.56 million employees in the private sector and at state-run enterprises are divided based on their average monthly earnings — have improved over the past six years, Pan said.
While income on average gained 9.65 percent last year, the 10 percent lower than the first decile rose 13.48 percent from NT$231,000 in 2012 to NT$262,000 last year, DGBAS figures showed.
This was mainly driven by the increase in the minimum wage, while incomes higher than the ninth decile advanced 9.76 percent from NT$995,000 in 2012 to NT$1.092 million last year, the agency said.
“If only highly paid employees got a raise, that would signal uneven distribution,” Pan said.
The difference between the median and average salaries is widening, because there are more highly paid jobs, Pan said, adding that the trend should not be considered problematic.
The difference appears to be the biggest among the healthcare, information and communications, financial and insurance sectors, where there are more highly paid jobs, the DGBAS said, adding that the difference is the smallest in the support services sector at NT$39,000.
By profession, employees in the electricity and natural gas supply industry topped the list for median annual earnings at NT$1.196 million, followed by employees working in finance and insurance at NT$889,000, DGBAS data showed.
Median annual earnings for people in healthcare and the information and communications sector was NT$600,000, while that for people in support services, arts and entertainment, leisure, hospitality and catering, and education was below NT$400,000, data showed.
By demographics, median earnings for people under the age of 25 was NT$319,000, compared with NT$548,000 for people aged 40 to 49 and NT$386,000 for people older than 65, data showed.
The average earnings of the lowest 20 percent of income-earners was NT$262,000, compared with NT$1.092 million for workers in the highest 20 percent.
The figures also showed a narrowing in earnings by gender: Median earnings rose 2.73 percent for women to NT$438,000 and 1.86 percent for men to NT$503,000.
China’s economic planning agency yesterday outlined details of measures aimed at boosting the economy, but refrained from major spending initiatives. The piecemeal nature of the plans announced yesterday appeared to disappoint investors who were hoping for bolder moves, and the Shanghai Composite Index gave up a 10 percent initial gain as markets reopened after a weeklong holiday to end 4.59 percent higher, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index dived 9.41 percent. Chinese National Development and Reform Commission Chairman Zheng Shanjie (鄭珊潔) said the government would frontload 100 billion yuan (US$14.2 billion) in spending from the government’s budget for next year in addition
Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) suffered its biggest stock decline in more than a month after the company unveiled new artificial intelligence (AI) chips, but did not provide hoped-for information on customers or financial performance. The stock slid 4 percent to US$164.18 on Thursday, the biggest single-day drop since Sept. 3. Shares of the company remain up 11 percent this year. AMD has emerged as the biggest contender to Nvidia Corp in the lucrative market of AI processors. The company’s latest chips would exceed some capabilities of its rival, AMD chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) said at an event hosted by
AVIATION: Despite production issues in the US, the Taoyuan-based airline expects to receive 24 passenger planes on schedule, while one freight plane is delayed The ongoing strike at Boeing Co has had only a minor impact on China Airlines Ltd (CAL, 中華航空), although the delivery of a new cargo jet might be postponed, CAL chairman Hsieh Su-chien (謝世謙) said on Saturday. The 24 Boeing 787-9 passenger aircraft on order would be delivered on schedule from next year to 2028, while one 777F freight aircraft would be delayed, Hsieh told reporters at a company event. Boeing, which announced a decision on Friday to cut 17,000 jobs — about one-tenth of its workforce — is facing a strike by 33,000 US west coast workers that has halted production
TECH JUGGERNAUT: TSMC shares have more than doubled since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, as demand for cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips remains high Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday posted a better-than-expected 39 percent rise in quarterly revenue, assuaging concerns that artificial intelligence (AI) hardware spending is beginning to taper off. The main chipmaker for Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc reported third-quarter sales of NT$759.69 billion (US$23.6 billion), compared with the average analyst projection of NT$748 billion. For last month alone, TSMC reported revenue jumped 39.6 percent year-on-year to NT$251.87 billion. Taiwan’s largest company is to disclose its full third-quarter earnings on Thursday next week and update its outlook. Hsinchu-based TSMC produces the cutting-edge chips needed to train AI. The company now makes more
RSS