Newly employed graduates earn NT$39,000 on average in 2025: Ministry

Taipei, April 24 (CNA) Newly employed graduates earned an average monthly wage of NT$39,000 (US$1,239) in 2025, up 5.4 percent from a year earlier, with 17.2 percent paid the minimum wage of NT$28,590 at the time, the Ministry of Labor said Friday.

The data covered 138,000 graduates, the vast majority (99.8 percent) of whom had completed high school or above. Among them, 73 percent held a college/university degree and 21.5 percent held a master's degree, according to the ministry.

The figure was NT$2,000 higher than the previous year, the data showed.

University graduates earned NT$36,000 per month on average. By industry, health care and social work services recorded the highest wage at NT$42,000, followed by the financial and insurance sector at NT$39,000.

The average monthly salary for postgraduate degree holders was NT$53,000, with the highest pay in publishing, audiovisual, and information and communications services at NT$61,000, followed by manufacturing at NT$60,000.

In terms of median wages, the median monthly salary for new graduates was NT$36,000, compared with NT$34,000 for those with a college/university degree and NT$51,000 for those with a postgraduate degree, the ministry said.

The broadly similar median and average wages indicated that, within the same education level, only a small share of individuals earn exceptionally high salaries, it added.

At the lower end of the pay scale, 17.2 percent of new graduates last year, or 24,000 people, were paid the minimum wage of NT$28,590 at the time, across all educational levels.

The data also showed a gender gap in wages among new graduates.

In 2025, the average monthly wage of newly employed female graduates was NT$38,000, or 90.8 percent of the NT$41,000 earned by their male counterparts, resulting in a gender pay gap of 9.2 percent, up 0.5 percentage points from 2024.

The largest gap was among postgraduate degree holders, at 12.1 percent, where female employees earned NT$49,000 compared with NT$56,000 for their male counterparts.

The ministry attributed the wage gap among postgraduate degree holders to male dominance in science, technology and engineering fields, which typically offer higher pay. Men account for 65.1 percent of workers in these sectors.