(Photo by reporter Li Lianghui)
[Reporter Li Jinghui/Report from Taipei] The minimum wage review meeting was held this morning. As labor groups made a big move to demand that the minimum wage increase should reach 7.77% next year, representatives of employers also expressed their position before the review meeting. Ho Yu, executive director of the Federation of Industries, "came prepared." According to the "Customs Export Statistics", since last year, 21 major categories of export goods Among them, the 16th category of AI-related industries alone accounts for more than 80% of exports, and the other 20 categories account for less than 20% in total, and all are in decline; while the 16th category of AI-related industries employs less than 30% of the labor force, the other 20 categories of industries bear 70% of the workers' livelihoods. It is emphasized that Taiwan's industrial development is severely skewed, which is the main reason for the serious gap between the rich and the poor.
Capital representatives have even made suggestions to the government, calling for the establishment of an "AI Welfare Sovereign Fund." The government should use the taxes and dividends generated by the AI industry to establish a sovereign fund to take care of all workers and disadvantaged industries in the long term. In addition, they hope that when adjusting policies, the government can provide practical assistance to small and medium-sized enterprises in administrative application procedures and financing to promote overall industry development.
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Recently, Lin Bofeng, chairman of the Sansan Association, said that "3% is more reasonable" for the increase in the minimum wage next year, which triggered the anger of the labor union. However, Lin Bofeng is not a member of the minimum wage review committee. Qiu Yi-che, secretary-general of the Association for the Advancement of Industry and Commerce, one of the review committee members and a representative of employers, pointed out before today's meeting that Taiwan's overall economic growth has been impressive in recent years, but the outstanding economic data has been mainly driven by high-tech industries. On the contrary, the growth of most small and medium-sized enterprises, traditional industries and service industries has been quite limited. In particular, small and medium-sized enterprises are currently facing multiple heavy pressures from raw material costs, energy costs and labor costs, and even facing difficulties in obtaining funds.
Qiu Yiche emphasized that he hopes that today's review or discussion will be based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) and comprehensively consider the actual pressure that all industries can withstand. Do not directly apply the overall economic data boosted by high technology to all industries, otherwise it will easily cause the policy discussion to deviate from the focus.
Ho Yu, one of the review committee members and executive director of the Federation of Industries, even cited customs export statistics and pointed out that Taiwan’s exports are highly concentrated in the AI industry, with only Class 16 AI Digitalization-related industries accounted for 84.2% of the total export value, and exports grew by 48% annually. However, this industry employs less than 35% of the employees in the manufacturing industry. In comparison, the export output value of the remaining 20 traditional industries and small and medium-sized enterprises, such as plastics, chemicals, and daily necessities, only accounted for 15.8%. In the first half of the year, exports even declined by 13.9%, highlighting the operating difficulties faced by traditional industries.
He Yugeng raised the performance of the construction industry for the first time, emphasizing that the construction industry, as a locomotive industry, has seen housing transaction volume fall to 36% to 38% in the first half of the year due to land financing restrictions and credit controls. It is expected that the performance of domestic demand industries will be even less satisfactory in the second half of the year.
He Yu said that according to the Minimum Wage Law, CPI (Consumer Price Index) is the benchmark for minimum wage adjustment. "There is consensus" that next year's monthly salary will exceed 30,000 yuan, but the serious tilt in domestic industrial development cannot be ignored. He expects representatives from the four parties to come up with data and arguments to debate and seek a consensus solution that "everyone is not satisfied with but accepts."
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