Jan.-July real wages post strongest growth in 11 years: DGBAS

Taipei, Sept. 15 (CNA) Inflation-adjusted wages in Taiwan's industrial and service sectors continued to outpace consumer price growth in the first seven months of the year, with real aggregate earnings recording their strongest growth for the period in 11 years, according to government data released Monday.

Average monthly regular wages, adjusted for inflation, rose 1.12 percent from a year earlier to NT$44,113 (US$1,389) in the January-July period, marking the largest gain for the same period since 2020, when they increased 1.60 percent, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said.

Real average aggregate earnings -- including regular wages as well as non-regular income such as overtime pay and bonuses -- increased 2.33 percent year-on-year to NT$434,420, the fastest growth for the January-July period since 2015, when they rose 1.72 percent.

Before adjusting for inflation, average monthly regular wages rose 2.94 percent from a year earlier to NT$49,054, while average aggregate earnings climbed 4.18 percent to NT$483,077, DGBAS data showed.

In July alone, average monthly regular wages increased 3.32 percent from a year earlier to NT$49,491, while average monthly aggregate earnings rose 8.25 percent to NT$71,165.

To better reflect typical earnings, the DGBAS also released the median monthly regular wage, which stood at NT$39,629 in July, up 3.47 percent from a year earlier.

For full-time Taiwanese employees, the median monthly regular wage was NT$41,397 in July, an increase of 4.04 percent year-on-year.

Tan Wen-ling (譚文玲), deputy director of the DGBAS Census Department, said wage growth continued to outpace inflation in the first seven months of the year, when the consumer price index (CPI) rose by an average of 1.8 percent.

However, Tan cautioned that faster inflation in recent months, with CPI rising more than 2 percent, could erode real wage gains going forward.

Separately, Tan said that based on Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) criteria, about 1.26 million full-time Taiwanese workers, or 16.8 percent of the total, earned less than the OECD's low-pay threshold in 2024.

Under the OECD definition, low-paid workers are those whose annual earnings are below two-thirds of the median annual wage. Based on Taiwan's 2024 data, that threshold was about NT$390,000 a year.

Tan said the equivalent monthly threshold, at around NT$27,598, is below Taiwan's minimum monthly wage of NT$29,500, meaning virtually no full-time domestic workers would be classified as low-paid based on monthly regular wages.

However, some workers still fall below the annual threshold because employees in certain industries receive little or no bonuses or profit-sharing income, she said.