Premier Jiang Yi-huah today approved raising the hourly basic wage to NT$115 (US$3.88) on January 1, 2014 and the monthly basic wage to NT$19,273 (US$651) on July 1, 2014. These changes are estimated to benefit approximately 310,000 and 1.76 million workers, respectively.
The Basic Wage Commission (BWC) reached a consensus on these adjustments after considering current economic and social circumstances during its annual wage review, held on August 28 this year. The commission will deliberate the basic wage again if the annual rise of the Taiwan Consumer Price Index surpasses 3 percent from January 1, 2014 onward.
The plan, which is in accordance with the provisions of the Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) and the Labor Standards Act, was sent to the Executive Yuan for approval September 10.
In order to allow full communication and consensus-seeking, at the beginning of the wage review labor and employer representatives separately discussed and exchanged opinions about basic wage adjustment, after which each side presented its own proposals to be considered by the commission as a whole, the CLA said. Where the two sides did not agree, public sector representatives considered their views and then presented their own recommendations until all commission members reached a consensus.
Laborer and employer representatives had two breakout discussion sessions during the review, and a resolution was agreed upon following full communication among all the BWC members. The members were seeking to create a new model for basic wage deliberation and all agreed to the deliberation process described above.
The Executive Yuan indicated that first establishing procedural consensus, then creating a model for discussing substantive issues will help lay a foundation of mutual trust between laborers and employers, solidify broader consensus and facilitate basic wage deliberations henceforth.
"The government has a responsibility to look after workers' basic living standards," the premier emphasized. "The CLA must continue to weigh labor and economic development conditions and critically review the basic wage in order to safeguard laborers' livelihoods."