TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Central Bank has released a report with three major recommendations to address Taiwan's low and decreasing wages.

The recommendations include increasing the current minimum wage of NT$26,400 (US$845) per month, lowering the threshold for union formation, and enhancing workers' bargaining power, per CTi News. It follows statistics that show a 0.56% decrease in real wages between January and April, the first-time negative wage growth has been observed in Taiwan in seven years.

The report said that the government should be encouraging and assisting workers from small and medium sized enterprises to join unions, as when bargaining power increases, wages will follow suit. In Taiwan, a union can be formed only if 30 workers or more agree to do so, in comparison to Japan and South Korea, which only require two workers.

The Central Bank report noted that many small to medium sized businesses will have less than 30 workers, and the regulations are unsuited to workers in these businesses who wish to unionize, and recommended that this threshold be lowered. According to the bank’s analysis, only 7.8% of Taiwan’s businesses and industries have unionized workers, compared to South Korea’s 12.5% and Japan’s 16.9%.

The government should also assist small and medium sized businesses in the service and manufacturing industries to innovate and increase the value of output, the report said. It noted that the ratio of Taiwanese working in the service industry is now 4:6, and that service industry wages are low.

In May it was revealed that many young Taiwanese are entering the service industry instead of training for what the Ministry of Labor defined as “key industries,” such as in semiconductors or electronics. The ministry said that 70% of Taiwanese youths are earning between NT$27,000 and NT$29,000 per month, while data from May showed the average wage across the entire workforce was just over NT$45,200 per month.

The Central Bank also recommended that the government continue to increase Taiwan’s minimum wage. The bank reported a survey that showed 40% of Taiwan’s manufacturing businesses that decided to raise wages last year listed the minimum wage increase (enacted in January) as a primary consideration.