The Executive Yuan has put off discussion of the minimum monthly wage proposal from today's weekly Cabinet meeting until after the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) primary to prevent opponents from criticizing Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) for using any wage hike as a tool to court voters.
The Council of Labor Affairs on Thursday proposed an increase in the minimum monthly wage from 7.5 percent to 9.5 percent, arguing that the consumer price index had risen by 7.5 percent over the past decade and the minimum monthly wage had not increased during the same period.
"We decided to postpone [the adjustment of the minimum wage proposal] because of concern over potential criticism while the premier is vying for support [for the primary]," Cabinet Spokeswoman Chen Mei-ling (
Su is vying with Vice President Annette Lu (
Last Friday, the three held a joint press conference alleging that Su was trying to win support by guaranteeing financial support for Tainan City's railway relocation project and for Chiayi's biological science park.
Although the minimum wage proposal would not be discussed during the Cabinet's weekly meeting today, Premier Su said yesterday the Cabinet had decided to raise the minimum wage on July 1.
He didn't reveal details of the proposal.
Su made the remarks during a question-and-answer session in the legislature.
"The policy will be adopted on July 1," he said.
Su said that the proposal was approved by a meeting of the Minimum Wage Reviewing Committee and will pass the Cabinet meeting when government departments come up with supplementary measures.
In related news, President Chen Shui-bian (
Chen made his remarks while receiving this year's model laborers and their families at the Presidential Office.
The new labor retirement fund system went into effect on July 1, 2005. Since then, it has accumulated over NT$160.6 billion (US$5 billion) as of April 27 this year.
The fund's supervisory board is scheduled to become operational on Aug. 1, after which it would be used for investment.
While the investment return rate of the National Stabilization Fund was recorded at 40 percent in the first quarter of this year, Chen said he would like to see the 4 percent annual investment return rate of the labor fund increased.
Additional reporting by Shih Hsiu-chuan
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