Employees in Taiwan received an average year-end bonus of NT$71,968 (US$2,477) for 2021, NT$1,586 more than the amount reported a year earlier, according to the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).
The amount of the annual bonus -- typically given at the end of each Lunar New Year -- is equal to 1.63 months of the average regular salary of NT$43,889 in February, as calculated by the DGBAS after its monthly survey of pay in the manufacturing and service sectors was released Wednesday.
According to the government's statistics agency, the figure is comprised of non-regular salaries, such as bonuses and performance based pay, but excludes overtime pay, between December 2021 and February 2022.
Employees in the financial and insurance industry had the highest year-end bonus of 3.67 months of their average salaries, followed by 2.45 months in the real estate industry, and 1.88 months in the manufacturing industry, the DGBAS said.
Sector-wise, people working for shipping companies received an average year-end bonus of NT$622,627, or 7.27 months of their salaries, followed by employees of financial holding firms, who received a bonus of NT$435,749, or 7.09 months, the DGBAS added.
While the average regular salary of NT$43,889 recorded in February represented an increase of 2.49 percent year-on-year, the real average wage, which includes non-regular salaries and factors in inflation, during the first two month of this year fell 0.16 percent from last year, according to the DGBAS.
The decline, according to Chen Hui-hsin (???), deputy director of the DGBAS census department, was caused by the smaller bonuses received by employees in the service sector catering to domestic consumers, which was impacted by a surge in locally transmitted COVID-19 infections that started in mid-May last year.
In addition, Taiwan is currently experiencing rising consumer prices, with the consumer price index (CPI) released monthly by the DGBAS recording annual increases of 2.83 percent in January, 2.34 percent in February and 3.27 percent in March, data showed.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel