Migrant workers employed in manufacturing and construction sectors last year earned NT$32,303 per month on average, while domestic caregivers earned NT$21,000, the Ministry of Labor (MOL) said yesterday.
Average migrant worker wages in the manufacturing and construction sectors rose NT$1,762, or 5.8 percent, from a year earlier, the ministry said, citing a survey of employers of industrial workers and domestic caregivers conducted in July and August last year.
The figures represent a 5.21 percent increase in the minimum wage for migrant workers, to NT$25,250 a month, the ministry said.
Photo: CNA
Migrant workers in the industrial sector last year earned an average regular salary of NT$26,066 a month, up 5.9 percent from 2021, while overtime pay averaged NT$5,619 a month, up 4.1 percent annually.
About 42 percent of the surveyed manufacturers applied to hire migrant workers last year, while 24 percent said they did not fill their quota for migrant workers, due mainly to the COVID-19 pandemic and cost considerations, the ministry said.
Last year, average working hours for industrial migrant workers fell one hour per month from a year earlier to 203.1 hours, with regular working hours averaging 167.6 and overtime working hours averaging 35.5, down 0.1 hours and 0.9 hours respectively, the ministry said.
The survey, which collected 4,573 valid questionnaires from employers in the manufacturing and construction sectors, found that 34.7 percent of industrial sector employers had trouble managing migrant workers.
The biggest issue was difficulty communicating due to language barriers, the ministry said.
Migrant caregivers, who are not covered by the nation’s minimum wage laws, earned an average of NT$20,533 per month last year, up 1.6 percent from a year earlier, the ministry said, citing 4,007 valid questionnaires collected from employers of migrant caregivers.
That included regular salary of NT$17,961, up 2.3 percent from a year earlier, and overtime pay of NT$2,135 per month, down NT$47 year-on-year, the ministry said.
Migrant caregivers worked an average of 10 hours per day, while 49.4 percent of surveyed employers said their caregivers took days off during holidays.
Employers whose caregivers did not take days off said it was because the caregivers wanted to earn more overtime pay, the ministry said.
When their caregivers took days off, 74 percent of employers resorted to using alternatives, which mostly involved family members taking over the caregivers’ duties, the survey found.
About 21 percent of the employers said they experienced problems with their migrant employees, citing difficulty communicating and workers spending too much time on their phones.
As of the end of November, Taiwan had 505,959 industrial migrant workers and 201,406 migrant domestic caregivers, the ministry said.
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