The number of employees who received a monthly regular wage of less than NT$30,000 (US$1,016) last year fell to the lowest since the tally was started in 1980, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said.
Data released by the DGBAS on Monday showed that the number of employees who were paid a regular wage of less than NT$30,000 fell by 256,000 from a year earlier to 2.465 million last year, marking the eighth consecutive annual decline.
Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣), deputy director of the agency’s Census Department, said the decline came in the wake of increases in the minimum wage and as many employers raised wages.
Photo: CNA
Last year, the minimum monthly wage stood at NT$24,000 and the maximum hourly pay was NT$160, compared with NT$19,047 and NT$115 respectively eight years ago.
WAGE INCREASE
This year, the minimum monthly wage was raised further to NT$25,250 while the minimum hourly pay was hiked to NT$168.
The DGBAS said the number of workers receiving a monthly wage lower than NT$30,000 accounted for 26.84 percent of all workers last year, down from 29.76 percent in a similar survey conducted in 2020.
On the other hand, the number of workers who received a monthly wage of between NT$30,000 and NT$50,000 rose to 4.799 million last year from 4.575 million a year earlier, making up 52.27 percent of the nation’s workforce, the DGBAS said.
In addition, the number of workers receiving a monthly regular wage of more than NT$50,000 hit 1.919 million last year, up from 1.848 million in 2020, accounting for 20.89 percent of all employees, the agency added.
PANDEMIC EFFECT
The DGBAS conducted its latest survey on regular wages in October last year, instead of May, as it had done since 1980, because of a domestic COVID-19 outbreak.
The government raised the COVID-19 alert to level 3 in May last year following a spike in local cases.
As the annual survey asks for regular wages paid only in the month when the poll is conducted, the DGBAS said there was concern that the results might not fully reflect reality.
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