The State of Taiwan HR 2026

In Taiwan, every listed company must publish what it pays the people who do not manage anyone: the average and the median, every year, set against its earnings per share and its industry. Seven years of those filings, covering 1.37 million non-managerial employees, show a pay market set far more by industry than by size, rising about 2.6% a year, and only loosely tied to profit.

What the data says

• The median non-manager earns about NT$734,000 a year. That is the median company's median pay for full-time non-managerial staff in 2025. The middle 80% of companies sit between NT$523,500 and NT$1,240,000.
• Industry sets the level. The median finance and insurance company pays NT$1,218,000 and the median semiconductor company NT$1,108,000, against NT$563,000 in tourism and hospitality.
• The median company raised pay 19% in six years. Among 1,552 companies that reported every year from 2019 to 2025, median pay grew 2.6% a year in nominal terms; 190 pay their median non-manager less than in 2019.
• Profit is a loose guide. 44% of companies whose earnings per share beat their industry still paid non-managers less than the industry average. In 2025, 137 reported higher profit and a lower average.
• A quarter of managers are women; a fifth of directors. The median company reports 25.8% women among managers. Women hold 20.7% of 16,530 board seats; 120 boards have none.

What's inside

• What non-managers are paid: distribution, main board against TPEx, by company size
• Pay by industry and the highest-paying companies
• Seven years of pay, 2019–2025, for the same 1,552 companies, and growth by industry
• Does pay follow profit? Earnings per share against pay, and the three statutory flags
• What companies say when profit rises and pay falls
• Women in management by industry and company size
• Boards: seats, independence and women directors against the one-third recommendation
• What this means if you hire in Taiwan
• Excel workbook: every company, its pay for each year 2019–2025, headcount, earnings, industry averages, flags with the company's own explanation, women in management and board composition

Look inside

Who it is for

• HR and reward leaders hiring in TaiwanA defensible benchmark for non-manager pay by industry and company, from mandatory filings rather than surveys.
• Japanese and global companies with Taiwan operationsWhere your local pay sits against listed peers, and how fast the market is moving.
• Investors and analystsSeven years of company-level pay against earnings per share, in one workbook.

How it was made

Built from the pay disclosures every TWSE- and TPEx-listed company files on the Market Observation Post System (fiscal years 2019–2025) and from FSC/TWSE ESG open data on human capital and board composition (Government Open Data License v1.0). Medians are across companies; trends use only companies that reported every year. Pay is nominal, in New Taiwan dollars.

By Yan Sen Lu, Editor of The Hardest Market and Managing Director of Makana Partners.

Questions

What exactly is "non-managerial pay"?

Total annual pay, including bonuses and employee profit-sharing, of full-time employees who do not hold a management post, as each company reports it under Taiwan's disclosure rules. Managers and executives are excluded by design.

What do I get?

An 11-page PDF report and an Excel workbook with every company's figures, by instant download after payment.

Taxes and receipts?

Polar is the merchant of record: it calculates tax and issues the receipt.

Can I share it with my team?

One purchase is for one reader. For a team or company licence, a purchase order or an invoice, write to editor@hardestmarket.com.

Is it in Chinese?

The report is in English. Company names are given in English with the stock code; the workbook also has the Chinese names and the companies' own explanations as filed.