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
Actor Darren Wang (王大陸) was sentenced to six months in prison, commutable to a fine, by the New Taipei District Court today for contravening the Personal Data Protection Act (個人資料保護法) in a case linked to an alleged draft-dodging scheme. Wang allegedly paid NT$3.6 million (US$114,380) to an illegal group to help him evade mandatory military service through falsified medical documents, prosecutors said. He transferred the funds to Chen Chih-ming (陳志明), the alleged mastermind of a draft-evasion ring, although he lost contact with him as he was already in detention on fraud charges, they said. Chen is accused of helping a
UNREASONABLE SURVEILLANCE: A camera targeted on an road by a neighbor captured a man’s habitual unsignaled turn into home, netting him dozens of tickets The Taichung High Administrative Court has canceled all 45 tickets given to a man for failing to use a turn signal while driving, as it considered long-term surveillance of his privacy more problematic than the traffic violations. The man, surnamed Tseng (曾), lives in Changhua County and was reported 45 times within a month for failing to signal while driving when he turned into the alley where his residence is. The reports were filed by his neighbor, who set up security cameras that constantly monitored not only the alley but also the door and yard of Tseng’s house. The surveillance occurred from July
SECURITY: Starlink owner Elon Musk has taken pro-Beijing positions, and allowing pro-China companies to control Taiwan’s critical infrastructure is risky, a legislator said Starlink was reluctant to offer services in Taiwan because of the nation’s extremely high penetration rates in 4G and 5G services, the Ministry of Digital Affairs said yesterday. The ministry made the comments at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee, which reviewed amendments to Article 36 of the Telecommunications Management Act (電信管理法). Article 36 bans foreigners from holding more than 49 percent of shares in public telecommunications networks, while shares foreigners directly and indirectly hold are also capped at 60 percent of the total, unless specified otherwise by law. The amendments, sponsored by Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator Ko
A Japan Self-Defense Forces vessel entered the Taiwan Strait yesterday, Japanese media reported. After passing through the Taiwan Strait, the Ikazuchi was to proceed to the South China Sea to take part in a joint military exercise with the US and the Philippines, the reports said. Japan Self-Defense Force vessels were first reported to have passed through the strait in September, 2024, with two further transits taking place in February and June last year, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Yesterday’s transit also marked the first time since Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi took office that a Japanese warship has been sent through the Taiwan
RSS