Average monthly take-home pay in February increased 2.52 percent from a year earlier to NT$45,917, while total wages — which includes overtime pay, performance-based commissions and bonuses — soared 54.84 percent to NT$81,576 on the back of Lunar New Year bonuses, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday.
Taiwanese firms on average issued Lunar New Year bonuses equivalent to 1.69 months of regular wages, or NT$77,348, the highest in nine years and up from 1.68 months a year earlier, Census Department Deputy Director Chen Hui-hsin (陳惠欣) said.
“The improvement came after service providers benefited from sustained revenge consumption in the post-COVID-19 pandemic era, although manufacturers took a hit from a global slowdown,” Chen told a news conference.
Photo: CNA
Financial and insurance companies offered the highest bonuses, averaging 3.64 months of wages, or NT$251,402, she said.
Manufacturers distributed 2.11 months of year-end bonuses, lower than the 2.14 months last year, she said, adding that suppliers of electronic components gave 2.76 months of bonuses, also weaker than 2.8 months a year earlier.
Exporters of tech and non-tech products had idle capacities and headcounts last year as they grappled with business declines induced by inventory adjustments and global inflation, Chen said.
Recreational facilities, hotels and restaurants fared better, issuing bonuses of 0.44 months to 0.74 months, compared with smaller bonuses or none last year, she said.
In the first two months of this year, regular take-home pay rose 2.39 percent annually to NT$46,017, while overall wages expanded 3.74 percent to NT$81,982, she said.
Real take-home wages after inflation remained in positive territory for the first time in two years with a 1.29 percent uptick as inflation pressure eased, Chen said.
The timing of the holiday also played a role, as local companies sometimes distribute year-end bonuses in December when the Lunar New Year is in January, she said.
Regular monthly wages have a fair chance of beating inflation due to the wage hikes and consumer price data, Chen said.
Holiday disruptions also explained why the number of workers hired in the industrial and service sectors in February shrank 0.25 percent, or about 21,000 people, compared with January, the DGBAS said.
Most firms halted operations for the holiday, it said.
As a result, the accession rate in February shed 0.07 percentage points to 2.04 percent, while the dropout rate gained 0.24 percentage points to 2.29 percent, it said.
SELL-OFF: Investors expect tariff-driven volatility as the local boarse reopens today, while analysts say government support and solid fundamentals would steady sentiment Local investors are bracing for a sharp market downturn today as the nation’s financial markets resume trading following a two-day closure for national holidays before the weekend, with sentiment rattled by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement. Trump’s unveiling of new “reciprocal tariffs” on Wednesday triggered a sell-off in global markets, with the FTSE Taiwan Index Futures — a benchmark for Taiwanese equities traded in Singapore — tumbling 9.2 percent over the past two sessions. Meanwhile, the American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the TAIEX, plunged 13.8 percent in
A wave of stop-loss selling and panic selling hit Taiwan's stock market at its opening today, with the weighted index plunging 2,086 points — a drop of more than 9.7 percent — marking the largest intraday point and percentage loss on record. The index bottomed out at 19,212.02, while futures were locked limit-down, with more than 1,000 stocks hitting their daily drop limit. Three heavyweight stocks — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn, 鴻海精密) and MediaTek (聯發科) — hit their limit-down prices as soon as the market opened, falling to NT$848 (US$25.54), NT$138.5 and NT$1,295 respectively. TSMC's
ASML Holding NV, the sole producer of the most advanced machines used in semiconductor manufacturing, said geopolitical tensions are harming innovation a day after US President Donald Trump levied massive tariffs that promise to disrupt trade flows across the entire world. “Our industry has been built basically on the ability of people to work together, to innovate together,” ASML chief executive officer Christophe Fouquet said in a recorded message at a Thursday industry event in the Netherlands. Export controls and increasing geopolitical tensions challenge that collaboration, he said, without specifically addressing the new US tariffs. Tech executives in the EU, which is
In a small town in Paraguay, a showdown is brewing between traditional producers of yerba mate, a bitter herbal tea popular across South America, and miners of a shinier treasure: gold. A rush for the precious metal is pitting mate growers and indigenous groups against the expanding operations of small-scale miners who, until recently, were their neighbors, not nemeses. “They [the miners] have destroyed everything... The canals, springs, swamps,” said Vidal Britez, president of the Yerba Mate Producers’ Association of the town of Paso Yobai, about 210km east of capital Asuncion. “You can see the pollution from the dead fish.
RSS