The Minimum Wage Act (最低工資法) will adequately protect workers, Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) said yesterday after labor groups asked how annual changes in the consumer price index (CPI) would be taken into account when the rate is being decided.
The act, which was passed by the legislature on Tuesday, instructs the Ministry of Labor to convene a 21-member review committee, which is required to meet in the third quarter each year to review the minimum wage and recommend possible adjustments based primarily on CPI changes.
Labor groups, including the New Kaohsiung Confederation of Trade Unions, the Taoyuan Confederation of Trade Unions and the Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union, on Tuesday said that the law should require minimum-wage hikes to be at least as high as CPI growth.
Photo: CNA
Hsu told reporters that there is no law anywhere in the world stipulating that minimum-wage hikes must not be lower than a certain index and that passing such a law would mean less flexibility when the new 21-member review committee is deciding what the minimum wage should be set at.
CPI growth is a “must” reference, she said, adding that it has been used when adjusting the minimum wage in recent years.
In addition to CPI, 10 other indicators will also be considered, including per capita income, GDP and minimum living expenses, she said, adding that this method would provide workers with adequate minimum wage protection.
Separately, Premier Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) also affirmed that CPI growth must be taken into account during adjustments.
The 19-article act largely formalizes and expands on the mechanism the government already uses to adjust the minimum wage.
In addition to introducing how the minimum wage should be adjusted and the establishment of a review committee, the law states that any employer found to be paying its employees less than the minimum wage will be fined from NT$20,000 to NT$1.5 million (US$634 to US$47,580), their names will be published and they have to comply with regulations within a mandated period.
China has reserved offshore airspace in the Yellow Sea and East China Sea from March 27 to May 6, issuing alerts usually used to warn of military exercises, although no such exercises have been announced, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported yesterday. Reserving such a large area for 40 days without explanation is an “unusual step,” as military exercises normally only last a few days, the paper said. These alerts, known as Notice to Air Missions (Notams), “are intended to inform pilots and aviation authorities of temporary airspace hazards or restrictions,” the article said. The airspace reserved in the alert is
NAMING SPAT: The foreign ministry called on Denmark to propose an acceptable solution to the erroneous nationality used for Taiwanese on residence permits Taiwan has revoked some privileges for Danish diplomatic staff over a Danish permit that lists “Taiwan” as “China,” Eric Huang (黃鈞耀), head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Department of European Affairs, told a news conference in Taipei yesterday. Reporters asked Huang whether the Danish government had responded to the ministry’s request that it correct the nationality on Danish residence permits of Taiwanese, which has been listed as “China” since 2024. Taiwan’s representative office in Denmark continues to communicate with the Danish government, and the ministry has revoked some privileges previously granted to Danish representatives in Taiwan and would continue to review
More than 6,000 Taiwanese students have participated in exchange programs in China over the past two years, despite the Mainland Affairs Council’s (MAC) “orange light” travel advisory, government records showed. The MAC’s publicly available registry showed that Taiwanese college and university students who went on exchange programs across the Strait numbered 3,592 and 2,966 people respectively. The National Immigration Agency data revealed that 2,296 and 2,551 Chinese students visited Taiwan for study in the same two years. A review of the Web sites of publicly-run universities and colleges showed that Taiwanese higher education institutions continued to recruit students for Chinese educational programs without
A bipartisan group of US senators has introduced a bill to enhance cooperation with Taiwan on drone development and to reduce reliance on supply chains linked to China. The proposed Blue Skies for Taiwan Act of 2026 was introduced by Republican US senators Ted Cruz and John Curtis, and Democratic US senators Jeff Merkley and Andy Kim. The legislation seeks to ease constraints on Taiwan-US cooperation in uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), including dependence on China-sourced components, limited access to capital and regulatory barriers under US export controls, a news release issued by Cruz on Wednesday said. The bill would establish a "Blue UAS
RSS