【By Alicia Nguyen and Te'Qin Windham / Staff writer】
Yes123 released a survey Wednesday revealing that the average monthly salary for Taiwan's professional women under 39, workplace mothers, and middle-aged women over the age of 40 and working mothers lags behind men's as much as NT $17,700.
According to the "Workplace Moms' Salary and Mother's Day Business Opportunity Survey," the average monthly salary of a working mother under age 39 is NT$31,300, which is higher than a young professional woman without a child has a salary of NT$31,000. However, the average monthly salary of both men and men with children of the same age range is also relatively low.
The results also show that middle-aged professional mothers over 40 have an average monthly salary of NT$35,000, which is only 67 percent of men's salary of the same age range. The women's salary is as much as NT$17,700 less than men's; the wages of middle-aged working women without children is equally lower than that of men's.
Yes123 job network spokesman Yang Tsung-pin believes that Taiwanese men and women are distributed among different industries, thus different salary structures. For example: the technology industry and the service industry have different gender proportions, so the average salary will also vary.
Based on the survey, compared to men, Taiwanese women are more likely to leave the workplace after childbirth, and the rate of reinstatement is only 55.57 percent; the time period between original employment and reemployment averages five years and five months. The work experience gaps in a resumé are to return to the workplace when there are opportunities for bargaining wages and getting equivalent positions are declining.
Yang said that nowadays women generally receive a higher education, however, they still lack in job experience. It is suggested that the government and businesses should establish a workplace environment that is more attentive to women, provide actual maternity and childbearing subsidies, provide employee benefits, and encourage women to return to work, which will help solve the low birthrate problem.
The "Workplace Moms' Salary and Mother's Day Business Opportunity Survey" also found that 91.6 percent of the respondents had planned Mother's Day celebrations. The average budget was NT$5,975, a 7.8 percent increase from last year's NT$5,544 budget.
"Workplace Mom's Salary and Mother's Day Business Opportunities Survey" was conducted by Yes123 Job Network website. Statistical analysis was performed on those who met the required data criteria. A total of 1,237 questionnaires were collected from Yes123, which included a total of 61,700 data items from workers under 39 years old and 40,400 items from workers age 40 or older.
[Taiwan News, 2018-05-02]
