Equivalent to an Annual Salary of 17.8 Million KRW
Impact of This Year’s 4.08% Minimum Wage Increase
The average starting salary for Taiwanese university graduates this year reached a record high of 33,713 Taiwan dollars per month (approximately 1.49 million KRW), marking a 4.9% increase from last year. When converted to an annual salary, this amounts to about 17.8 million KRW.
On the 24th, Taiwanese media including China Times reported this based on an analysis of job seeker member data from Taiwan's employment site 104 Job Bank. Among Taiwanese university graduates, the average starting salary in engineering, medical and health, mechanical, and mathematics/computer science fields was 36,000 Taiwan dollars (approximately 1.6 million KRW), which is 13% higher than the average starting salary for liberal arts graduates. This year, the average starting salary for master's degree graduates was 36,364 Taiwan dollars (approximately 1.61 million KRW), a 4.5% increase from last year.
The average starting salary for Taiwanese university graduates this year reached 33,713 New Taiwan Dollars (approximately 1.49 million KRW), marking a 4.9% increase from last year and setting a record high. When converted to an annual salary, it amounts to about 17.8 million KRW. Photo by EPA·Yonhap News
Experts explained that the recent wage increase is due to labor shortages caused by low birth rates and the development of information and communication technologies, which have led to wage comparisons within the same industries. It is also analyzed that the 4.08% increase in the minimum wage to 28,590 Taiwan dollars (approximately 1.27 million KRW) this year had an impact. Some argue that with rising prices and burdens such as monthly rent and student loan repayments, saving money is difficult, and they predict that the appropriate starting salary for university graduates should rise to between 33,000 and 35,000 Taiwan dollars. Another expert pointed out that the number of young Taiwanese voluntarily choosing to live as 'freeters' (free + part-time workers), avoiding being tied down by full-time jobs and sustaining themselves through part-time work, is increasing.
Earlier in January, the think tank Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER) estimated this year’s GDP growth rate for Taiwan at 3.42%, 0.27 percentage points higher than the 3.15% forecast made in November last year. TIER attributed this to the global AI boom, which has led to increased orders and exports in Taiwan’s semiconductor and information communication industries, performing better than expected. They added that the forecast has been rising each quarter. Meanwhile, according to the 'Analysis of Starting Salaries for University Graduates in Korea' released earlier this year by the Korea Employers Federation based on raw data from the Ministry of Employment and Labor’s survey on employment types, the average annual starting salary for regular employees at companies with 300 or more employees in Korea is 50.01 million KRW. The average annual starting salary for new regular university graduate employees in Korea was recorded at 36.75 million KRW.
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