Taiwan average annual remuneration in 2015 hits high

The average annual remuneration received by employees in Taiwan hit a new high since the compilation of the statistics began in 1997, according to government data released Thursday.

Citing the statistics, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said that the average annual remuneration paid by employers for each employee in the industrial and service sectors stood at NT$675,000 (US$20,990), up 2.4 percent from a year earlier.

This included regular wages, non-regular wages, insurance, pensions, severance pay, and allowances paid by employers. Non-regular wages include overtime pay, annual bonuses and performance bonuses, according to the DGBAS.

The DGBAS said that regular wages accounted for 68.6 percent of the average remuneration in 2015, the lowest percentage since the data started to be compiled.

On the other hand, non-regular wages made up 17.4 percent of the total remuneration last year, the highest level on record in terms of ratio, the DGBAS said.

The agency said that the ratio of non-regular wages to total remuneration in 2015 was higher than the 16.6 percent recorded in 2014, since employers appeared more generous in doling out year-end bonuses and performance bonuses before the local economy started to slow down in the second half of the year.

In 2015, due to a change in the local pension scheme and a rise in labor and health insurance fees, pension and insurance payments by employers represented 13.8 percent of the total remuneration, up from 11.4 percent recorded in 1977, the DGBAS data shows.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel