The number of employees in Taiwan who received a monthly regular wage of less than NT$30,000 (US$971) fell to a new low this year since the tally was started in 1980, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said.
The number of workers receiving less than NT$30,000 in regular monthly wages fell to 2.107 million this year, down from 2.465 million last year, it said.
The 2.107 million workers receiving less than NT$30,000 a month accounted for 23.03 percent of the total workforce of 9.146 million in Taiwan this year, also falling from 26.84 percent a year earlier, DGBAS data showed.
This follows a trend seen in the past decade. Over the past 10 years, the ratio dropped by 18.65 percentage points, the data indicated.
Commenting on the decline in the number of people in Taiwan receiving less than NT$30,000 in monthly wages in the past 10 years, deputy director of the census department at DGBAS Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said such a trend resulted from willingness of employers to raise wages as well as the government’s minimum wage hikes.
Starting from Jan. 1, the monthly minimum wage in Taiwan rose to NT$25,250 a month from NT$24,000 a year earlier, increasing from NT$18,780 in 2012.
The survey found that the number of workers paid NT$30,000 to NT$50,000 rose to 5.03 million this year from 4.799 million a year earlier, comprising almost 55 percent of the total workforce.
The number of workers paid more than NT$50,000 a month also rose to 2.01 million from 1.92 million, accounting for 22 percent of the total workforce, the DGBAS said.
However, after adjusting for inflation, workers took home less pay compared to last year.
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