TAIWAN-DEFENCE
Taiwan's Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics released salary statistics for the first three quarters of 2026, showing that the average monthly regular salary of employees in the industrial and service sectors reached NT$49,152, an increase of 2.93% year-on-year, which is the second highest increase in the same period in the past 26 years.

Average regular monthly wages for employees in Taiwan’s industrial and service sectors reached NT$49,152 from January to September, up 2.93% from the same period last year. That was the second-highest growth rate for the period in nearly 26 years, according to data released by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) on the 11th. After adjusting for inflation, real regular wages also continued to rise, indicating that wage growth outpaced inflation during the period.

According to a Central News Agency report, average regular monthly wages totaled NT$49,152 in the first three quarters, an annual increase of 2.93%. The increase was second only to the 3% growth recorded during the same period in 2025.

Regular wages mainly comprise basic pay and fixed allowances, excluding overtime pay, year-end bonuses and other nonregular income. After accounting for price changes, real average regular wages rose 0.98% year on year in the first three quarters, the second-highest increase for the period in six years, behind only the 1.21% growth recorded in 2025.

The DGBAS said the consumer price index (CPI) rose 1.94% year on year in the first three quarters. Government measures to stabilize prices and related policies helped ease inflationary pressure, allowing real wages to maintain positive growth.

When regular and nonregular wages were combined, average total wages reached NT$609,498 in the first three quarters, up 4.59% year on year. After adjusting for inflation, real average total wages increased 2.60%, the strongest growth for the period since 2015.

The DGBAS also reported that median regular monthly wages averaged NT$39,429 from January to September, an annual increase of 3.04%. Real median wages rose 1.08% after accounting for inflation. Because the median is less affected by exceptionally high- or low-paid cases, it provides another measure of income changes among typical employees.

DGBAS official Tan Wen-ling said that increases in the minimum wage in recent years, together with companies raising pay to retain talent, had supported continued wage growth among Taiwan employees. Average regular wages for domestic employees in the first three quarters were 17.51% higher than during the same period in 2020.

However, wage growth does not mean that all workers received pay increases of the same magnitude. DGBAS data showed that 69.97% of employees earned regular wages below the overall average in the first three quarters, highlighting the gap between aggregate wage growth and the experiences of workers in different income groups.