Nine in 10 workers in Taiwan are not satisfied with their salaries and three in four have not received a raise this year, a 1111 Job Bank survey showed on Wednesday.
The annual online survey found that 90 percent of respondents were “unsatisfied” with their pay, the highest percentage in five years.
Seventy-five percent said their salary had remained stagnant this year, with the one-quarter who said they had received a raise averaging a NT$2,117 per month hike.
Photo: CNA
Asked about the reasons for stagnant wages, 61.8 percent said their company did not have a system to regularly increase salaries.
The survey showed that 18.6 percent believed the reason was due to their company’s financial performance, 16.9 percent said their boss had refused, 13.5 percent said their boss did not like them and 12.4 percent said they did not have sufficient seniority.
The average time since their previous raise was 3.7 years, while 25.5 percent of respondents said they had not received a raise in the past five years, the survey showed.
At a news conference, 1111 Job Bank public relations manager Tseng Chung-wei (曾仲葳) said that the findings tracked with Taiwan’s slowing economic growth, which has made companies more cautious about increasing labor costs.
The government last month trimmed its GDP growth forecast to 1.61 percent, the lowest in eight years, Tseng said.
A Ministry of Labor committee today is expected to decide whether to recommend raising the country’s minimum wage next year.
Meanwhile, the Cabinet has approved a 4 percent raise for public-sector workers next year, which needs to be approved by the legislature.
The survey was conducted from Aug. 14 to Monday. It garnered 1,084 valid responses from working adults in Taiwan. It had a margin of error of 2.98 percentage points and a confidence level of 95 percent.
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