Teachers, civil servants, and military personnel are set to get their biggest salary raise in 25 years. The Executive Yuan has approved a plan to raise public sector wages by 4%, the most since 1996. This proposal next goes to the Legislative Yuan, which is widely expected to approve it.

Lo Ping-cheng
Executive Yuan spokesperson
We are adjusting salaries by 4%. It’s thanks to everyone’s hard work that we are now able to share the wealth.

Premier Su Tseng-chang has finalized a pay raise that takes effect next year for three types of public servants. It’s bigger than the raises given in recent years, which have all been 3%.

Lo Ping-cheng
Executive Yuan spokesperson
My mother is an educator. She’s an elementary school teacher. I saw how she raised five children on her salary. As long as I have the ability to do so, I will always try to raise wages for public servants, so that they can have an easier home life.

Premier Su commended Taiwan’s government workers and urged lawmakers to support the wage hike.

According to government records, public servants received a 5% raise in 1996. Wages were raised 3% in the year 2001, and then 3% again three times after that. This time, the salary hike is set at 4%, which will cost the government NT$31.4 billion. If passed by lawmakers, this will be the Tsai administration’s second raise for service members, teachers and civil servants. It’ll also be the biggest raise in 25 years.

Liu Shih-fang
DPP lawmaker
I think this is a good thing. We’ve already approved a raise to the basic wage. Our service members, civil servants and teachers all work very hard. And recently, our economy has been growing. With this growth, we are able to share the benefits with them. From the DPP’s standpoint, this is something we fully support.

Chen Yu-chen
KMT lawmaker
Service members, civil servants and teachers have always worked very hard. So of course I’d be happy to see them get a raise. But as for retired service members, civil servants, and teachers whose pensions were cut, they too had worked hard for our country. I think that retired service members and police – people in this group— should be considered for a raise.

In a rare show of cross-party unity, KMT and DPP lawmakers said they support the raise. But a KMT lawmaker is also asking for a raise for pensioners. The Executive Yuan said that raising pensions is not on the agenda, but that it’s set aside a provisional NT$1 billion for pension bonuses.