Taiwan Minimum Wage 2026: NT$29,500 a Month, NT$196 an Hour (2027: NT$30,900)

The short answer

Taiwan’s minimum wage in 2026 is NT$29,500 per month and NT$196 per hour. It took effect on January 1, 2026, following a Ministry of Labor (MOL) announcement on October 21, 2025. The monthly rate rose 3.18% from NT$28,590, and the hourly rate rose from NT$190.

The rate for 2027 has been decided but is not yet final: on September 24, 2026, the Minimum Wage Deliberation Committee set it at NT$30,900 per month and NT$205 per hour, an increase of 4.745%. The Cabinet (Executive Yuan) heard the report on October 1, 2026. Formal approval and the MOL announcement were still pending as of October 7, 2026. Until December 31, 2026, the 2026 rates apply.

The monthly rate applies to full-time workers paid by the month. The hourly rate applies to part-time and hourly workers. NT$29,500 is the floor for a full-time monthly wage; it is not an average or typical salary.

Does the minimum wage apply to foreigners?

It depends on whether the job is covered by the Labor Standards Act, not on nationality.

• Foreign workers in jobs covered by the Labor Standards Act, such as factory workers, receive the same minimum wage as Taiwanese workers. The MOL states that all workers covered by the Act, “whether Taiwanese or migrant workers,” are subject to the minimum wage rules.
• Migrant domestic workers and in-home caregivers are not covered by the Labor Standards Act, so the minimum wage does not apply to them. Their pay is set by agreement between employer and worker. The government’s recommended monthly pay for newly hired or renewed domestic workers has been NT$20,000 since August 10, 2022.
• Food and lodging for migrant workers covered by the Act must be agreed in the contract before the worker arrives. The MOL suggests NT$5,000 per month as a reference ceiling for the amount included in wages; it is a guideline rather than a statutory cap, according to the Workforce Development Agency.
• Foreign professionals hired for specialized or technical work (the “A” category work permit) face a separate floor: an average monthly salary of at least NT$47,971, according to the Workforce Development Agency’s Ezwork Taiwan page updated May 13, 2026. This threshold is a work-permit condition, separate from the minimum wage.

Of the roughly 2.61 million workers expected to benefit from the 2027 increase, the MOL counts about 2.20 million as Taiwanese, which leaves roughly 410,000 foreign workers.

How Taiwan sets the minimum wage

Since January 1, 2024, the rate has been set under the Minimum Wage Act, which replaced the older “basic wage” system. Taiwanese still often say “basic wage” (基本工資); it refers to the same number.

1. The Minimum Wage Deliberation Committee meets every year in the third quarter. It has 21 members: the Minister of Labor as convener, representatives of labor, employers, government agencies and academics.
2. The committee must take the consumer price index into account and may consider other indicators, such as productivity, average wages and GDP.
3. The MOL submits the result to the Executive Yuan for approval within ten days.
4. After approval, the MOL announces it. The new rate normally takes effect on January 1 of the following year.

Paying below the minimum wage can be fined up to NT$1.5 million, and the employer’s name can be published.

How the minimum wage has changed

Since 2016 the minimum wage has risen every year; in 2016 only the hourly rate went up, while the monthly rate stayed at NT$20,008. If the 2027 increase is approved, it will be the 11th consecutive annual rise. The ten years from 1997 to 2007 without any change remain the longest freeze. The full year-by-year table since 1956 is in the Chinese original.

Minimum wage versus typical pay

The minimum wage is the legal floor. It is not what a typical employee earns. Taiwan’s official statistics put the 2024 median annual total earnings of employees, including bonuses, at NT$546,000, roughly NT$45,500 a month on average. For where a given salary ranks, see Taiwan salary percentiles.

According to the MOL’s survey of first-job salaries, 17.2% of new entrants in 2025 started at the minimum wage, about one in six.