Taiwan industry and service salaries grow 0.1 pct annually in decade

The average monthly salary in Taiwan's industrial and service sectors has remained almost the level of what it was 10 years ago. Once inflation is factored in, there has been an actual annual growth of 0.1 percent since 2006, recent data showed.

Currently industrial and service sectors employees earn about 49,392 New Taiwan dollars (1,568 U.S. dollars) per month, marking 1.5 percent annual growth over almost 10 years.

However, taking into account the consumer price index (CPI), a main gauge of inflation, the actual annual increase is just 0.1 percent, according to statistics released late Tuesday by Taiwan's accounting authority.

In the past 30 years, average monthly salary growth slowed down year by year. Salaries underwent fast growth from 1987 to 1996, with an annual increase of 9.3 percent. From 1997 to 2006, growth plummeted to 1.5 percent; the figure further dropped to 1.3 percent from 2007 to the end of October 2016, according to the statistics.

Monthly salary in the art, entertainment and financial industries had comparatively bigger rises over the past 20 years, with annual growth of about 2.3 percent, followed by 2 percent for the hotel, catering and healthcare industries.

Manufacturing industries, which employ the most staff on the island, recorded an annual rise of 1.7 percent, while the real estate sector only raised salaries by 0.5 percent per year, in the past 20 years. Endi