Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) lawmakers yesterday proposed raising the minimum monthly wage to at least NT$22,000 — with some pushing for NT$24,000 — after Minister of Labor Chen Hsiung-wen (陳雄文) on Wednesday said that there is room for a further increase on the threshold that is to rise to NT$20,008 in July.
KMT legislators Wu Yu-jen (吳育仁) and Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) told a press conference that they proposed that the minimum monthly wage be raised to at least NT$22,000 — almost NT$2,000 higher than the NT$20,008 that is set to take effect on July 1 from the current NT$19,273.
The labor minister had said in the legislature that the raise in the minimum wage (along with the raise in the minimum hourly wage from NT$115 to NT$120) was decided by the minimum wage review committee last year.
Photo CNA
“I personally consider that there is still room for a further raise, as the estimate for the country’s GDP growth is 3.78 percent,” Chen said, adding that the decision would depend on the review committee’s resolution in the third quarter.
Seven other KMT legislators, including Sun Ta-chien (孫大千), Lin Kuo-cheng (林國正) and Hsieh Kuo-liang (謝國樑), also issued a statement, calling for the increase of the minimum monthly wage to NT$24,000.
They said that they would propose to amend the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法) to have NT$24,000 as the minimum, from which any adjustment in the future could only go upward.
The abolishing of the minimum wage review committee would also be one of their proposed amendments to the act, they said, saying that the minimum wage should be reviewed by the legislature regularly in the future, “to lead Taiwan’s workplace out of the 22K curse.”
KMT deputy caucus whip Liao Kuo-tung (廖國棟) said he looks forward to the raise, but it would need the executive departments to table supporting measures.
“The required procedures and supporting measures would need to be in place [for the minimum wage raise], which is another issue. [The KMT caucus] would put first priority on the amendments to the ‘four laws for pay raises,’” Liao said.
The “four laws for pay raises” are the amendments proposed earlier this month by the KMT caucus to the Company Act (公司法), the Labor Standards Act (勞動基準法), the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Act (中小企業發展條例) and the Factory Act (工廠法) requiring enterprises to dole out their surpluses, if they have any, to employees as raises and bonuses.
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