Minimum wage in Taiwan

The minimum wage in Taiwan is the lowest hourly or monthly remuneration that employers may legally pay to workers in Taiwan. It is also known as the basic wage. Taiwan's basic wage system is discussed in the third quarter of every year by the Basic Wage Committees and announced and implemented by the Executive Yuan after its approval. The current basic wage in Taiwan is NT$20,008 per month, or NT$120 per hour, since July 1, 2015.

History

Taiwan first established a minimum wage in 1956, with the Minimum Wage Act.[1]

In 1968, the ROC Executive Yuan issued Temporary Measures for the Basic Wage, which regulated NT$600 as the monthly basic wage. Meanwhile, it was the first official basic wage rule regulated by law.

In 1984, Article 21 of the Labor Standards Law provided, "A worker shall be paid such wages as determined through negotiations with the employer, provided, however, that such wages shall not fall below the basic wage."[2]

In 1986, Article 23 of the Minimum Wage Law, set up on the continent December 11, 1936 and published on December 23, 1936, was abolished by legislature on November 21, as announced by the president on December 3, 1986.

In 1988, after the adoption of the Regulations of Basic Wage, the Council of Labor Affairs formulated basic wage related policy and began to have adjustments every year. Because of the Asian financial crisis, a large number of industrial relocation, and other factors, it did not adjust it for nearly a decade from 1997 to 2007. The monthly wage was NT$15,840 then.

In 2007, the basic wage included holiday working hours. The hourly wage had a substantial portion of adjusted, but the monthly wage had about 9% of the adjustments.

Since 2010, Basic Wage Committees, which consist of workers, employers, and government representatives, administer the basic wage. The Executive Yuan announces and implements the related policy of the basic wage.

On 8 September 2016, the Ministry of Labor announced the increase of minimum wage from NT$20,008 to NT$21,008 starting 2017 and also the hourly minimum wage from NT$120 to NT$126 starting October 2016 and to NT$133 starting January 2017.[3]

Applicability

According to the Labor Standards Law, workers who are applicable may be applicable to the basic wage as well, and wages that employers give to them may not be less than the basic wage.

Basic wage review committee in 2013

In August 28, 2013, the CLA held the 26th the basic wage review committee. The hourly basic wage went from NT$109 to NT$115, from January 1, 2014. The basic wage per month changed from NT$19,047 to NT$19,273, from July 1, 2014.

The government wants to avoid labor disputes caused by the annual committee and set a threshold of the basic wage to reconvene the council. (The price index must have risen over 3%.)

Recent disputes

In 2012, the Executive Yuan of Taiwan intended to attract investment of Taiwanese in China back to Taiwan. It wanted to increase the proportions of foreign workers hired in manufacturers to above 40% and to decouple the basic wages of its citizens and foreign workers.

However, some organizations firmly opposed the policy. They thought it violated international conventions and value of the International Labour Organization. Once the basic wages of foreign workers were decoupled, Taiwan would be contrary to its own commitments in the international arena.

Furthermore, some groups believe that the basic wages between citizens and foreign workers should be decoupled to avoid high domestic wages of foreign workers making domestic enterprises flee aboard and causing the domestic employment market shrinking, then making local workers suffer.

References

  1. ↑ Lee, James; Midgley, James; Zhu, Yapeng (11 December 2013). Social Policy and Change in East Asia. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 50. ISBN 9780739174579.
  2. ↑ "Labor Standards Act". Taiwan Ministry of Labor. Retrieved 19 June 2014.
  3. ↑ "Taiwan to raise minimum wage next year - Most Viewed - FOCUS TAIWAN - CNA ENGLISH NEWS".

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 10/31/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.