The number of employees in Taiwan earning less than NT$30,000 (US$948.53) a month has dropped to a record low, as the government continues its efforts to raise the minimum wage nationwide, a survey released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) on Thursday showed.
About 1.84 million employees — 19.81 percent of the workforce — were earning a monthly salary of less than NT$30,000 this year, the first time that the number has dropped below 2 million in the country, the DGBAS said.
Last year, the number of wage earners in that category was 2.11 million, making up 23.03 percent of the total workforce, DGBAS data show.
Photo: CNA
Meanwhile, the number of workers in the NT$50,000 monthly salary bracket climbed to about 2.21 million this year, up from 2.01 million last year, accounting for 23.76 percent of the country’s workforce, the DGBAS said.
While salaries were rising in tandem with domestic economic growth, the government’s minimum wage increases also prompted private-sector employers to raise pay and contributed to the decline in the number of people earning less than NT$30,000 a month, DGBAS Census Department Deputy Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said on Thursday.
The minimum monthly wage this year increased by 4.55 percent to NT$25,250 and the hourly wage rose by 4.76 percent to NT$176 per hour, up from last year’s levels.
According to the DGBAS, in the category of full-time workers earning less than NT$30,000 a month, the number fell this year to about 1.50 million — 16.78 percent of employees in Taiwan — down from 1.78 million last year.
The number of full-time workers receiving more than NT$50,000 per month rose to 2.20 million this year, which was 24.68 percent of the total number of workers, increasing from 2.01 million last year, it said.
The survey also showed that the number of atypical employees — part-time workers and those on temporary or dispatch contracts — had increased to a four-year high of 806,000 as of May, up 8,000 from last year, accounting for 7.01 percent of the total number of employees in the country.
Chen said that as Taiwan emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic, domestic spending had increased, driving labor demand in the service sector for atypical employees.
The number of atypical workers in Taiwan had dropped to under 800,000 in the 2020-2022 period, amid lower domestic consumption due to the pandemic, she said, adding that the figure was about 819,000 in 2019.
Some people choose atypical work because it fits in with their other obligations, such as household duties, she added.
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