Stagnant industry, falling investment, overly academic graduates and fiercer global competition are just a handful of the reasons why wages in Taiwan suck.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/03/19
By: Jane Rickards, Taiwan Business TOPICS Magazine
Why does nearly everyone in Taiwan feel they are working hard but still receiving a
Credit: REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
meager pay packet?
“The biggest problem is the low rate of growth,” says Peng Su-ling, director of the Center for Economic Forecasting at the Chung-hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER). Other factors include the impact of global competition, the proximity of the enormous China market, and a union movement that is weak even by regional standards.
Economic growth has been lackluster in recent years compared with Taiwan’s rip-roaring economic glory days several decades ago that propelled it into the ranks of Asia’s Four Tigers. Four decades ago, Taiwan was a world leader in the manufacture of a whole range of products, from umbrellas and furniture to the downstream assembly of personal computers. But after other countries played catch-up, now only Taiwan’s upstream electronics companies constitute a sector that is competitive internationally (although some individual Taiwanese companies in other areas are outstanding world players).
As a result, GDP growth stood at just 1.5 percent in 2016 before international demand for Apple products containing local components pushed it up to an estimated 2.86 percent last year. The Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) is forecasting 2.42 percent for 2018. [FULL STORY]
