Base Salary to Increase Next Year: Commerce Council Suggests Prioritizing Hourly Wage Hike for Specific Groups

Although the base salary for 2027 has not yet been officially confirmed, the Executive Yuan has publicly announced that the minimum wage in 2027 is expected to exceed NT$30,000. The Ministry of Labor plans to convene the Minimum Wage Review Committee next (September) month, drawing attention to whether the minimum wage will continue its 11-year consecutive increase.

In response, Hsu Shu-po, Chairman of the Commercial Weekly Council, stated on the 13th that adjusting the base salary has little impact on local Taiwanese workers but significantly affects traditional industries and foreign labor. He recommends that instead of uniformly increasing monthly salaries, policymakers should consider raising the hourly wage for part-time workers and student employees to better support economically disadvantaged groups.

The Council held the 8th Brand Golden Bo Award ceremony this afternoon, honoring 33 small and medium-sized enterprises. Before the event, Hsu remarked in an interview that many industries have already moved beyond the basic wage framework—for example, financial holding companies would never pay at the minimum wage level. Many sectors no longer operate under the basic wage system, and only traditional industries still rely on it, particularly those employing a large number of foreign workers.

Hsu cited an example from a food manufacturer who told him they cannot hire staff even at a starting monthly salary of NT$40,000. He believes that while raising the base salary impacts Taiwan broadly, the effect is most pronounced in traditional industries where Taiwanese workers are less involved and tasks are often assigned to foreign labor. Even if wages are raised, the beneficiaries are mostly foreign workers, with limited benefit to local workers.

Hsu suggests that any hourly wage increase should target local Taiwanese workers, especially university students and part-time workers, so they can earn better compensation. He emphasized that this is more important than raising the base salary because increasing the minimum monthly wage primarily subsidizes foreign worker wages and further burdens traditional enterprises.