Average monthly take-home pay rose 2.22 percent to NT$42,135 in August, as companies raised wages for employees, but cut overtime hours amid an economic slowdown, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
“The nation’s wages have seen a modest increase of more than 2 percent,” thanks to a stable economy and job market, DGBAS Deputy Director Pan Ning-hsin (潘寧馨) told a media briefing.
Although affected by a US-China trade dispute, Taiwan’s economy has been resilient thanks to firms rerouting trade and the deployment of 5G technology, with the benefits expected to extend into next year, Pan said.
Total compensation including performance-based bonuses and overtime pay rose 2.67 percent to NT$51,040, DGBAS data showed.
Total monthly compensation was highest for employees in the financial and insurance sector at NT$83,806, followed by workers hired by electricity and gas suppliers at NT$74,530 and staffers of electronic component manufacturers at NT$72,374, the data showed.
Financial and insurance companies reported evident business improvement in August, Pan said.
Cumulatively, regular wages stood at NT$41,760 for the first eight months of this year, an increase of 2.32 percent from a year earlier and the second highest level in 19 years, he said.
Real take-home pay increased 1.78 percent from a year earlier to NT$40,773 per month after factoring in inflation, while total real compensation rose 1.4 percent to NT$54,390, the report said.
Not all data were positive, Pan said, adding that average overtime hours had shrunk for 10 months in a row to 7.7 hours in August.
For the first eight months, overtime hours averaged 167.4, the lowest since 2010, the report said.
The retreat is consistent with an economic slowdown that began in the second half of last year, Pan said, adding that higher overtime pay requirements also drove firms to increase outsourcing.
The accession rate — the number of new employees added to a payroll — stood at 2.73 percent, down 0.41 percentage points from a month earlier, the agency said.
The construction and manufacturing sectors gained staff, while the retail and wholesale sectors lost some, resulting in a net gain of 3,000 employees, it said.
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