It is encouraging that the legislature preliminarily passed a bill on Monday stipulating that listed firms should share their profits with employees and raise wages, clearing the way for the final passage early next month.
Making profit-sharing compulsory might not be the perfect way to boost salaries, but it is the government’s very first — albeit tiny — step toward tackling the burning issue of wage stagnation by using the law, rather than just moral suasion.
On Monday, legislators gave preliminary approval to a revision of the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) that would force companies to share profits and to work with their employees each year to produce a profit-sharing plan. Violators would be fined from NT$500,000 to NT$5 million (US$15,930 to US$159,300) based on another revision, which also passed a preliminary review.
However, legislators backed away from a proposal that set a specific figure for corporate profit-sharing, saying there is no one-size-fits-all model.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lin Shu-fen (林淑芬) proposed that firms allocate at least 20 percent of their annual profit to profit-sharing.
In addition, legislators proposed revising the Company Act (公司法), Factory Act (工廠法) and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act (中小企業發展條例) to boost salaries by legally imposing profit-sharing on the nation’s listed firms.
Companies that allocate a certain amount of their profit to pay increases could receive a reduction in business tax, legislators proposed.
In the 14 years prior to last year, real wages fell by 0.1 percent, while in South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong, they increased by 2 percent, 1.3 percent and 1.3 percent respectively, according to statistics released yesterday by the National Development Council.
The so-called “pay raise” amendments are considered the government’s first practical steps toward ending long-term wage stagnation.
The stimulus measures are seen by some economists and central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) as tools to spur private consumption and revitalize the economy after tax cuts for corporations failed to result in more business activity.
Some doubt how big the effect of the “pay raise” amendments will be, since only listed firms would be obliged to conform to the new rules. About 3 million employees, or one-third of the nation’s 10 million salaried workers, would be subject to the extra benefits.
These rules may not have an extensive impact on the job market, but they should create an environment in which local employers start thinking about the feasibility of sharing more profits with employees, beyond meager — or nonexistent — annual pay raises and year-end bonuses.
A survey by local job agency 1111 Job Bank found that nearly 30 percent of local employers support the “pay raise” amendments, higher than the disapproval rate of 18 percent.
Half of 815 firms listed on the stock market plan to increase employees’ salaries this year, with pay raises likely to average 3.5 percent, according to Financial Supervisory Commission statistics.
It is undeniable that there are a number of miserly bosses who are reluctant to assign a portion of their profits to their employees, while no one is arguing that shareholders receive more profit when companies earn more.
The four “pay raise” amendments are certainly not a cure-all, just the beginning of efforts to raise wages.
The government must implement more measures to magnify the effect, while local enterprises more carefully calculate whether paying higher wages to maintain a well-trained and skillful workforce is a cost-effective way of remaining competitive.
Concerns that the US might abandon Taiwan are often overstated. While US President Donald Trump’s handling of Ukraine raised unease in Taiwan, it is crucial to recognize that Taiwan is not Ukraine. Under Trump, the US views Ukraine largely as a European problem, whereas the Indo-Pacific region remains its primary geopolitical focus. Taipei holds immense strategic value for Washington and is unlikely to be treated as a bargaining chip in US-China relations. Trump’s vision of “making America great again” would be directly undermined by any move to abandon Taiwan. Despite the rhetoric of “America First,” the Trump administration understands the necessity of
In an article published on this page on Tuesday, Kaohsiung-based journalist Julien Oeuillet wrote that “legions of people worldwide would care if a disaster occurred in South Korea or Japan, but the same people would not bat an eyelid if Taiwan disappeared.” That is quite a statement. We are constantly reading about the importance of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), hailed in Taiwan as the nation’s “silicon shield” protecting it from hostile foreign forces such as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and so crucial to the global supply chain for semiconductors that its loss would cost the global economy US$1
US President Donald Trump’s challenge to domestic American economic-political priorities, and abroad to the global balance of power, are not a threat to the security of Taiwan. Trump’s success can go far to contain the real threat — the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) surge to hegemony — while offering expanded defensive opportunities for Taiwan. In a stunning affirmation of the CCP policy of “forceful reunification,” an obscene euphemism for the invasion of Taiwan and the destruction of its democracy, on March 13, 2024, the People’s Liberation Army’s (PLA) used Chinese social media platforms to show the first-time linkage of three new
Sasha B. Chhabra’s column (“Michelle Yeoh should no longer be welcome,” March 26, page 8) lamented an Instagram post by renowned actress Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) about her recent visit to “Taipei, China.” It is Chhabra’s opinion that, in response to parroting Beijing’s propaganda about the status of Taiwan, Yeoh should be banned from entering this nation and her films cut off from funding by government-backed agencies, as well as disqualified from competing in the Golden Horse Awards. She and other celebrities, he wrote, must be made to understand “that there are consequences for their actions if they become political pawns of
RSS