Foreign contract workers employed in Taiwan’s manufacturing and construction sectors earned slightly less last year than in 2022, survey results released by the Ministry of Labor yesterday showed.
Migrant workers in the industrial sector had an average monthly income of NT$32,183 in June, down NT$120 or 0.4 percent from the same period in 2022, according to the survey, which is done once in the middle of the year.
The NT$32,183 figure was calculated based on a regular monthly salary of NT$27,284, up NT$1,218 or 4.7 percent from 2022, average overtime pay of NT$4,048, down NT$1,571 or 28 percent year-over-year, and an average irregular bonus of NT$851.
Photo: CNA
In June last year, the average number of working hours for industrial migrant workers fell 10.7 hours a month from a year earlier to 192.4 hours. Regular working hours averaged 167.4 hours and overtime hours averaged 25 hours, down 0.2 hours and 10.5 hours respectively, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, migrant workers serving as domestic caregivers had average monthly earnings of NT$22,638 in June last year, an increase of NT$2,105 from the same period in 2022, the survey found.
The figure was based on an average regular salary of NT$19,920 and average overtime pay of NT$2,291, which were up by NT$1,959 and NT$156 respectively from the previous year. It also included an average irregular bonus of NT$427.
Meanwhile, 86 percent of caregiver employers said they did not specifically set a number of hours their caregiver had to work per day, but regardless of whether there was a target, migrant caregivers worked about 10 hours per day on average.
Additionally, 60.6 percent of surveyed employers said their caregivers took days off during holidays or parts of holidays, the survey showed.
The survey found that 39.4 percent of caregivers chose not to take days off and that 95.1 percent of employers polled said they paid them for such overtime.
The ministry conducted the survey from July to August last year and obtained a total of 8,562 valid replies — 4,534 from companies in the manufacturing and construction sectors and 4,028 from employers of foreign caregivers.
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