TAIPEI (TVBS News) — Taiwan's semiconductor hubs are minting a new class of high earners, with tech workers pulling in more than NT$100,000 (US$3,174) a month as stock markets soar. Beyond the science parks, workers in traditional industries earn barely a third as much, their paychecks stagnant even as prices rise. The two Taiwans share one headline number: 8.63% growth in 2025, the island's strongest in fifteen years.
Government statistics reveal the mechanics of this divide. Just 12% of Taiwan's workforce — approximately 1.04 million workers in electronics, information technology, and optical equipment manufacturing — generated 76% of the country's exports in 2025, up from 48% in 2016. Traditional industries saw their export share collapse from 40% to 20% over the same period, battered by Chinese competition and weak global demand.
The wage gap has widened accordingly. Workers in finance and insurance earned an average of NT$107,000 (US$3,396) monthly in 2024, while electronics component workers averaged NT$102,000 (US$3,237) — an 18.28% year-over-year increase. Employees in traditional industries remain stuck at NT$30,000 to NT$40,000 (US$952 to US$1,269) monthly. Nearly 70% of all employees now earn below the average wage, the highest proportion ever recorded.
Labor's share of Taiwan's gross domestic product fell to 43.1% in 2024, a record low, as the economy shifted toward capital-intensive semiconductor manufacturing. The four highest-paying industries employ only about 1.45 million workers — roughly 17% of Taiwan's 8.46 million employed persons — leaving 83% of the workforce outside the boom's direct benefits.
Economists offered sharply different diagnoses. Shin Bing-lung (辛炳隆), an adjunct professor at National Taiwan University, said the government should reduce citizens' costs for education, housing, and taxes rather than focus solely on wage growth. Housing prices in Taipei have more than doubled over the past decade, while real wage growth has remained stagnant for most workers. "Promoting shiny economic achievements while people feel nothing is like rubbing salt in their wounds," Shin told the United Daily News.
Yin Nai-ping (殷乃平), a finance professor at National Chengchi University, pointed to investment participation as a new dividing line. Taiwan's stock market has surged more than 50% over the past two years, crossing 30,000 points in early 2026. This creates a second layer of inequality: workers in traditional industries not only earn less but are also less likely to hold the investments that have generated substantial wealth for others.
Taiwan's per capita GDP surpassed Japan in 2024 and South Korea in 2025, reaching US$38,748 last year. Yet average wages still trail both countries by more than 20%, according to Shin — a paradox that captures the limits of GDP as a measure of shared prosperity. The island has become statistically richer than its neighbors while its workers remain measurably poorer, a gap that no amount of headline growth has managed to close.
Chiu Ta-sheng (邱達生), CEO of the Asia-Pacific Business Council, warned that concentrated growth "may cause the low birth rate and low wage problems to deteriorate further." Taiwan's birth rate, already among the world's lowest, fell again in 2025. The island that built prosperity through broad-based manufacturing now faces a choice: find ways to spread the semiconductor windfall, or watch its social foundations erode beneath record-breaking GDP figures. ◼