A new report by the Cabinet’s Gender Equality Committee shows that the wage gap between men and women is continuing to shrink in Taiwan.
The report, released on Thursday, lays out the government’s efforts to promote gender equality. According to the report, women earned an average hourly wage of NT$242.7 (US$7.71) in 2014. That’s 85% of the average hourly wage for men. The report also reveals that the average monthly salary for female workers was 17.45% lower than the average monthly salary for their male counterparts during 2014.
The report said that 2014 saw some progress towards achieving equal pay for female workers. Women would still have had to work an average of two months and 24 days extra in order to make up for the gap in pay. However, that’s four days fewer than they would have had to work in 2013.
At the Cabinet building Thursday, Premier Mao Chi-kuo said that the government must work to provide female workers with social support and workplaces that are friendly to those planning on starting families. Mao said that with these two factors in place, Taiwan can begin addressing the problems of a shrinking work force and a declining birth rate.