Tsai’s Government Failing Taiwan’s Workers with Cruel Minimum Wage Increase

Taiwan has been sinking into a state of stagnation for more than a decade, the Tsai government continues to give businesses too much latitude.

The News Lens
Date: 2017/08/23
By: Justin Hugo

Taiwan’s Basic Wage Deliberation Committee announced last Friday a proposal to increase the country’s monthly minimum wage from NT$21,009 (US$694) this year to NT$22,000 (US$726) next year. The committee comes under the Ministry of Labor (MOL).

Following the committee’s announcement, the MOL said this week that the proposed wage increment would increase employers’ spending by NT$16.29 billion (US$538 million), including via premiums paid to labor insurance, employment insurance and national health insurance.

This is much lower than what business leaders had previously claimed the increase would cost them – a director of the Chinese National Federation of Industries, Ho Yu (何語), had exaggerated the amount, claiming costs to employers would increase by nearly NT$30 billion a year.    [FULL  STORY]