Taipei, More than 28 percent of firms in Taiwan’s business sector raised regular wages in 2017 as the domestic economy continued to grow, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said Monday, citing a poll.
The poll showed that 28.2 percent of the companies increased their employees’ salaries, compared with 20.9 percent in 2016, the DGBAS said.
It was the highest percentage of companies to raise salaries since 2000, when 38.1 percent of them took that decision, the DGBAS added.
It said last year’s increase in the percentage of firms that hiked salaries could be attributed to Taiwan’s 2.89 percent economic growth in 2017, compared with 1.41 percent the previous year, on the back of strong exports.
A breakdown of the survey results showed that 31.7 percent of companies in the industrial segment and 26.8 percent in the service sector raised regular wages in 2017, according to the DGBAS.
Pay hikes were implemented by 71.5 percent of firms in the financial/insurance industry, 40.6 percent in the manufacturing sector and 32.9 percent in the utility sector, the DGBAS said, citing the poll.
Employee performance is the main factor for 49.9 percent of companies in Taiwan when they are considering a salary increase, while 36.5 percent think about their operations, according to the poll.
It showed that 35.7 percent of firms base their decision mainly on minimum wages, while 30.2 percent would give a pay increase to retain employees and 32.7 percent to boost their morale, the DGBAS said.
Only 6.6 percent of companies consider mainly inflation when thinking of a salary increase, compared with about 10.9 percent that cited inflation as the primary factor in a similar survey 2016, the DGBAS said, adding that inflation has been a diminishing factor over the past five years.
In May, the DGBAS raised its forecast for Taiwan’s 2018 GDP growth to 2.60 percent, 0.18 percentage points higher than in its February projection.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel