Taipei: Inflation-adjusted average monthly regular wages in Taiwan's industrial and service sectors posted the strongest growth for the first half of the year in six years, the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said Monday.
According to Focus Taiwan, DGBAS data showed that real average monthly regular wages reached NT$44,119 (US$1,368) in the January-June period, marking a 1.16 percent increase from a year earlier, the highest since 2020 when the increase was 1.60 percent. Before adjusting for inflation, the average monthly regular wages for the six-month period rose 2.88 percent from a year earlier to NT$48,981.
Average aggregate earnings, which include regular and non-regular pay such as overtime pay and bonuses, totaled NT$411,786 in the first six months of the year, up 3.48 percent from the previous year. After adjusting for inflation, average aggregate earnings rose 1.75 percent year on year to NT$370,914, marking the strongest first-half increase since 2017, when they rose 2.15 percent.
Tan Wen-ling, deputy director of the DGBAS Census Department, attributed the gains in real wages to an increase in the minimum wage and employers' willingness to raise pay. She noted that consumer prices rose just 1.69 percent in the first half of the year, the slowest January-June increase in five years, which also helped boost real wage growth.
Despite the 2.88 percent increase in nominal average regular wages, about 70 percent of employees earned less than the national average during the period, according to DGBAS data. Average monthly regular wages in the hospitality and food/beverage sector were NT$34,754, while workers in other personal service industries, such as beauty salons, earned just NT$37,379, both figures falling below the national average. Conversely, the electronic components sector and the financial and insurance sector reported average monthly regular wages of NT$58,173 and NT$74,369, respectively, illustrating uneven wage growth across industries.
In June alone, the average monthly regular wages rose 3.18 percent from a year earlier to NT$49,343, while average monthly earnings increased by 6.53 percent to NT$60,267. To provide a more accurate picture of typical earnings, DGBAS also released the median monthly regular wage, which stood at NT$39,453 in June, up 3.12 percent from a year earlier.
Tan highlighted that Taiwan faced renewed inflationary pressure after the consumer price index rose above the central bank's 2 percent alert level for the third consecutive month in July, influenced by elevated global energy prices and tensions in the Middle East. She cautioned that ongoing inflationary pressure could erode future gains in real wages.