Fewer young Taiwanese are employed, while the number of older workers has increased by more than 64,000 over the past three years, Ministry of Labor data showed, indicating the effects of societal aging.
The number of people contributing to the labor pension system aged 15 to 19, 20 to 24 and 35 to 39 fell from May 2020 to February, while the number of employed people in other age brackets increased, the data showed.
The Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) stipulates that companies must deposit no less than 6 percent of the salary of each worker covered by the act into their pension fund account, including re-employed older workers who are already receiving pensions.
Photo: CNA
The number of young workers, defined by the ministry as those aged 15 to 29, fell by more than 53,000 over the past three years, the data showed.
Over the same period, the number of workers aged 30 to 44 increased by more than 22,000, the number of those aged 45 to 64 rose by more than 390,000 and the number of those aged 65 — the statutory retirement age — or older increased by more than 64,000, the data showed.
A ministry official yesterday said that Taiwan’s declining birthrate is reflected in the falling number of young people in the workforce.
The official said the first decline in the number of births occurred in the mid-1980s, with about 383,000 births in 1983, 346,000 births in 1985 and 309,000 births in 1986, before the numbers rose again to 314,000 births in 1987 and 342,000 in 1988.
Average monthly pension contributions have increased for all age groups over the past three years, with the 45-49 age bracket having the highest average of NT$50,714, while the average among 20 to 24-year-olds, at NT$27,035, was almost as low as the minimum monthly wage of NT$26,400, they said.
Workers aged 65 or older on average contributed NT$34,195, the official said.
The steepest increase was in the publishing, audio and video production, broadcasting, information and communications industry, at 11.87 percent, followed by the manufacturing industry at 11.77 percent, while the mining industry and the electricity and gas supply industry were the only two sectors in which the average monthly pension contributions declined, they said.
However, the service industry, which covers nearly 65 percent of the working population, has an average monthly pension contribution that is about 10 percent lower than industrial sectors, they added.
The data showed that as of February, the three industries with the highest average monthly pension contributions were the electricity and gas supply industry, at NT$63,669, followed by the financial and insurance industry at NT$60,606 and the publishing, audio and video production, broadcasting, information and communications industry at NT$59,541.
The average monthly pension contribution for the industrial sectors was NT$46,822, about 10 percent higher than that of the service industry, at NT$41,862, the data showed.
While the electricity and gas supply industry had the highest average monthly pension contributions, it declined 0.38 percent, while that of the mining industry declined 4.1 percent.
The official said it was mainly due to more workers at Taiwan Power Co (台電), CPC Corp, Taiwan (台灣中油) and other state-run companies retiring.
The Industrial sector not only had a higher average monthly pension contribution than the service industry, but its average salary increased 10.84 percent over the past three years, more than that of the service industry, in which salaries increased 7.7 percent on average.
The increase in average monthly pension contributions in the publishing, audio and video production, broadcasting, information and communications industry was mainly due to increases at computer programming and information technology companies, the official said.
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