Long hours, low pay could become norm in job market, expert warns
2013/09/21 20:16:40
Taipei, Sept. 21 (CNA) Long working hours and low pay could become the norm in Taiwan's job market, a human resources association cautioned Saturday.
Lin Yu-min, executive director of the Chinese Personnel Executive Association, noted that average Taiwanese salaries are already the lowest among the four Asian tigers, which includes Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea along with Taiwan.
Labor statistics show that monthly salaries among Taiwanese office workers averaged NT$45,888 (US$1,553) last year, while the average amount of time working throughout the year came out to 2,140.8 hours, she pointed out.
The cost of local labor has risen due to an exodus of businesses to China, industrial transformation, and rising wages and labor insurance premiums, she said, which has left salaries frozen as business owners worry over personnel costs.
The situation is exacerbated by shifts to atypical employment, with 740,000 people taking up work as temps and dispatch workers this year alone, she said.
Growth of the atypical employment sector, which used to be made up mostly of housewives and students, means that expectations of low salaries are becoming more common as the idea of "life-long employment" disappears, she says.
The average montly salary for temp and dispatch workers was NT$19,038 (about US$640) last year, she said. That puts it just underneath the current minimum wage of NT$19,047.
(By Wu Ching-chun and Lilian Wu)
