Taiwan's gender pay gap widens in 2024

Taipei, Feb. 25 (CNA) Taiwan's gender pay gap in 2024 was 15.8 percent, slightly higher than the 15.1 percent recorded in 2023, according to data on the relative wages of male and female employees by the Ministry of Labor (MOL) on Tuesday.

The average hourly wage for males in 2024 was NT$389 (US$11.87), compared to NT$327 for women, meaning that a woman needed to work 58 more days to reach the same annual salary as a man, two more than the 56 days in 2023, an MOL report said.

The MOL did not provide much detail on what was behind the pay gap, saying only generally that it resulted from several factors, including the nature of the jobs done and occupations held by men and women and variations in their seniority, education and qualifications.

It said the widening of the pay gap in 2024 was greatly influenced by a few major industries with wide pay gaps, including the electronic components manufacturing industry.

In that sector, the average wage was NT$668 per hour for men and NT$393 for women, a gap of 41.2 percent, 1.9 percentage points higher than 2023, the report said, without specifically explaining why the gap widened.

Other industries in which the gender pay gap widened included the food and health care sectors, which could be due to how different positions are distributed in the industries and differences between pay raises for different occupations, the MOL said.

Excluding the three industries mentioned above, the wage gap in 2024 was 11.5 percent, 0.3 percentage points higher than in 2023.

The MOL pointed out that Taiwan's gender wage gap continues to be lower than that of Japan and South Korea, with respective wage gaps of 29.7 percent and 29 percent in 2023.

Meanwhile, the United States releases gender wage gaps according to annual median wage differences between men and women. In 2023, Taiwan's gender wage median difference was 12.3 percent, lower than 16.4 percent in the U.S.

(By Chang Hsiung-feng and Wu Kuan-hsien)

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