Focus Taiwan
Date: 2016/08/19
By: Chen Cheng-wei and Elaine Hou

Taipei, Aug. 19 (CNA) The disposable income gap between Taiwan’s highest and lowest income earning households widened slightly in 2015, with the top 20 percent earning 6.06 times what the bottom 20 percent made, according to government statistics released Friday.

It was the first time in six years that the household income gap widened rather than narrowed, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said.

In 2014, the disposable household income of Taiwan’s richest families was 6.05 times greater than the disposable income of the poorest families.

The latest statistics from the government agency showed that the average disposable income of the top 20 percent of households was NT$1.94 million (US$61,318) in 2015, up 1.03 percent from the previous year.     [FULL  STORY]