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Local business groups pan minimum wage increase
A local business group has expressed displeasure with the Ministry of Labor's (MOL) decision to raise the basic wage by 4.5% next year.
General Chamber of Commerce chair Xu Shu-bo is accusing the MOL of "rubbing salt in the wounds," saying many businesses are already suffering from higher electricity prices, higher costs of raw materials and slower growth due to the Covid pandemic.
Xu says although the government offered subsidies, only some 20% of the applications for that aid have been granted this year, which fell short of expectations.He says the adjustments of minimum wage should have been done more carefully.
The National Federation of Industries, which said earlier this week that it can only accept a minimum pay raise of 3% at most, said yesterday that many of its members' have a pessimistic outlook for Taiwan's economy this year because of inflation. The NFI is calling for more assistance from the government.
The MOL's committee made the decision yesterday to raise the monthly minimum wage to NT$26,400 from this year's NT$25,250, and hourly pay to NT$176 from NT$168. This is the 7th consecutive year that the Tsai Administration did so.
