Following the electricity price review committee’s decision on Friday to hike electricity prices starting next month, labor rights groups on Saturday urged the Ministry of Labor to increase the minimum wage by at least 4 percent to guarantee the purchasing power of low-income families and disadvantaged workers.
The ministry’s minimum wage deliberation committee is scheduled to decide on Friday on whether the minimum wage would be raised for next year.
According to the Minimum Wage Act (最低工資法), the ministry must hold a minimum wage deliberation meeting in the third quarter of each year.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan Labor Front earlier this month issued a statement highlighting low wage problems and said that the minimum wage should be increased to NT$30,000 per month.
The Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions (TCTU) said that with a Consumer Price Index (CPI) growth of 1.76 percent this year, the minimum wage should grow by 4 percent, bringing it close to NT$30,000 per month or NT$200 per hour.
However, a member of the minimum wage deliberation committee said that while economic performance in the first half of the year was promising, it also reflected the volatility of future financial performances, which employers might cite as a reason to scale back hikes to wages.
While employees believe that they should enjoy the economic upturn alongside employers, the percentages of how such “excess” should be shared are subject to negotiation, the member said.
The TCTU said it opposed employers citing increased global economic uncertainty due to US tariffs as an excuse to decrease the percentage of wage hikes, adding that employers cannot claim outstanding economic performance while refusing to pay employees more to maintain their purchasing power.
Taiwan’s economic performance over the past few years has been steady, with inflation remaining at the 2 percent warning line, it said.
However, CPI rates for 17 critical daily necessities have shown a 1.8 percent annual growth rate, which included a 3.48 percent increase in expenditures incurred by dining out, and a 2.33 percent increase in expenses incurred through rent, it added.
Food prices rose by 3.69 percent from January to July, and the prices of daily necessities that people typically buy once a month increased by 2.93 percent, it said.
Taiwan Labor Front said that overhead costs and price fluctuations in international trade impacting domestic markets and affecting the purchasing power of workers are not an issue solely seen in Taiwan.
Germany, France, the UK, Canada, Austria, South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam see the need to raise wages to ensure that it is at a level that would stimulate the domestic economy and alleviate pressure from rising costs of living, it said, adding that Japan’s wage increase reached 6 percent.
Additional reporting by CNA
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