TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Formosa Plastics Group Chair William Wang (王文淵) said the company has raised employee salaries by 2%, pushing the average monthly wage to more than NT$63,000 (US$1,970).

Wang announced the salary adjustment Thursday following a meeting with the company’s management and labor union representatives. The company said that it decided to raise salaries in response to significant inflation in Taiwan this year, despite challenges from a sluggish petrochemical industry and rising transformation costs, per CNA.

The group raised salaries by 4.5% in 2022, marking its highest adjustment in 38 years. The increase was 2.5% in 2023 and 3% last year. Wang added that in addition to the pay raise, the company will distribute at least three months' worth of year-end bonuses at the end of this year.

The group, which typically adjusts salaries every July, temporarily delayed the decision after its core subsidiaries — Formosa Plastics, Nan Ya Plastics, Formosa Chemicals and Fibre, and Formosa Petrochemical — posted a combined after-tax loss of NT$21.32 billion in the first half of this year. 

The loss, attributed to challenges including US tariff policies, the appreciation of the Taiwan dollar, and a decline in refining and petrochemical product prices, marked a sharp reversal from a NT$15.68 billion profit in the same period last year.

The four subsidiaries faced their largest losses in the second quarter of this year, with a combined pre-tax loss of NT$25 billion, which completely wiped out the NT$3.75 billion profit from the first quarter.

Among them, Formosa Petrochemical posted a NT$3.69 billion profit in the first quarter but led the losses with NT$7.5 billion in the second quarter. It was followed by Formosa Chemicals and Fibre, which recorded a NT$443 million loss in Q1 and a NT$6.82 billion loss in Q2.