Recent economic indicators show that that a minimum wage hike in the third quarter is likely, Council of Labor Affairs Minister Jennifer Wang (王如玄) said yesterday.
As long as the economy does not slip back into recession this year, the council hopes to negotiate an increase at its annual meeting to discuss minimum wage adjustments, Wang said.
The range of the adjustment would depend on a host of economic indicators, such as the jobless rate, GDP growth and consumer prices, Wang told a press conference to announce the council’s plans and goals for the new year.
The council announced in September that the minimum wage adjustment committee had agreed to raise the minimum monthly wage from NT$17,280 to NT$17,880, effective Jan. 1 this year. At the same time, the minimum hourly wage was raised by NT$3, from NT$95 to NT$98.
The move was widely criticized by labor groups, which said the small adjustments had no significant impact on workers and accused the council of failing to protect most underprivileged workers.
Wang said that with the economy recovering and the jobless rate falling for 16 straight months, the demand for labor now exceeds supply.
“The council calls on the private sector to join in giving raises to employees in order to retain talent, as the situation has gone from workers seeking jobs to jobs seeking workers,” she said.
However, labor activists are not as convinced that the economy is as strong as the government says it is.
Taiwan Labor Front secretary-general Son Yu-lian (孫友聯) said that low unemployment statistics are misleading indicators of a healthy job market, because the market still relies on government-funded temporary jobs as a crutch to keep unemployment figures pretty.
“Workers who earn the minimum wage are those who are most in need of government assistance. The NT$600 raise [effective Jan. 1] was a joke,” he said.
Other indicators, such as the increase in atypical employment, including contractors and temporary employees, as well as falling wage levels, all point to a worsening environment for workers, Su said.
“These are all serious problems that the government should solve. Instead, the government is patting itself on the back because of inflated economic indicators,” he said.
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