TAIPEI (Taiwan News) -- Nearly 54 percent of companies in Taiwan plan on giving their employees a 3.5 percent raise on average in the second half of this year, below the 6 percent average expectation of workers, according to a survey by job bank yes123.

According to the results of a survey published on July 10, 54.4 percent of companies surveyed said that they plan to raise salaries in the second half of this year, slightly lower than the 57.4 percent increase seen last year. Of those implementing a pay hike, 44.8 percent said they are doing so based on performance, while 9.6 percent said they are raising wages across the board.

In terms of pay increases by industry, only IT firms showed the highest willingness to increase wages, followed by traditional manufacturing companies, financial insurance and accounting, health care and biotechnology, with culture and education bringing up the rear.

As for employees reporting pay raises, only 17.7 of workers surveyed stated they had received a pay raise in the first half of the year, while 82.3 percent had not received a wage hike over that period. On average, workers are hoping to receive a 6 percent salary increase of NT$2,477 (US$79.39) per month, which is derived from an average regular wage of NT$41,767 in April, based on Taiwan data from the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS).

The job bank's Yang Tsung-bin (楊宗斌) said that because of the trade war between the U.S. and China and uncertain economic prospects, companies still weigh performance first. Therefore, company-wide pay raises are in the minority.

In addition, the survey found that in comparison to the second quarter of this year, the level of optimism by companies for the third quarter dropped somewhat. Of those surveyed, 57.6 percent felt that conditions would remain the same, 23.2 percent were optimistic, and 19.2 percent were pessimistic.

Although companies maintained a "slightly positive" view, they are starting to worry about a downturn in the economic situation. Workers reported very similar percentages, with 57.7 percent seeing conditions unchanged, 15.3 percent optimistic, and 27.0 percent pessimistic.

Affected by the U.S.-China trade war, export-oriented Taiwanese businessmen are more conservative about the second half of the year's operations. Although some plan to relocate production lines, they still need time to complete the transition.

The survey was carried out from June 13 to June 25 and 1,356 valid questionnaires were collected from employees with a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 2.66 percentage points. There were 875 valid questionnaires gathered from employers, with a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus 3.31 percentage points.