Taiwan to decide whether minimum wage should be adjusted on Thursday

台灣週四決定是否調整最低工資

The minimum wage has been increased six times during Tsai’s term, rising from NT$20,008 to NT$25,250


TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The annual Minimum Wage Review Committee meeting will be held on Thursday morning (Aug. 31) to decide whether Taiwan’s minimum wage should be raised and, if so, to what degree.

The committee consists of representatives from labor, capital, government, and academia. They will look at a variety of socioeconomic data and indexes before making a decision on whether to raise the minimum wage, CNA reported.

As people in Taiwan have been feeling the pinch of inflation, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics' (DGBAS) latest forecast indicated that Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) for this year will rise 2.92% year-over-year, the biggest increase in 14 years.

President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) and Minister of Labor Hsu Ming-chun (許銘春) have recently expressed favorable views of a minimum wage increase, and the public have generally expected the minimum wage for next year to be increased, per CNA.

On the eve of the Minimum Wage Review Committee’s Thursday meeting, committee members from labor and labor groups have called on the committee to raise the country’s minimum monthly wage to NT$28,000 (US$924) for next year, saying that only by doing so can the government achieve Tsai’s goal of reaching a NT$30,000 minimum wage before her term expires.

However, according to a survey conducted by the Chinese National Federation of Industries, 64% of businesses are pessimistic about next year’s economic outlook, and 76% of them can only accept a minimum wage increase of less than 3% for next year if the wage is to be raised, per CNA.

The General Chamber of Commerce of the Republic of China is hoping that the minimum wage increase will not be too substantial, saying that salaries and costs of raw materials and production have been a great financial burden.

The minimum wage has been raised six times during Tsai’s term, which has seen the minimum monthly wage rise from NT$20,008 to NT$25,250.

Taiwan's minimum monthly wage for 2022 is NT$25,250, and the minimum hourly wage is NT$168.