The Ministry of Labor yesterday in its annual migrant worker survey said that migrant workers earned an average of NT$33,000 per month last year in the construction and industrial sectors, and NT$24,000 for domestic care work.
The survey was conducted in July and August last year, receiving 8,554 responses — 4,538 from businesses and 4,016 from household employers.
The NT$33,000 monthly salary for those working in the construction and industrial sectors was an increase of NT$2,000 from the previous year, the ministry’s report said.
Photo: Wu Po-hsuan, Taipei Times
Those who worked in the same position for a full year saw an average of NT$15,000 in bonuses, such as holiday pay and performance incentives, it said.
For construction and industrial laborers, the average number of days off in June was 11, an increase of 1.9 compared with the year before, it said.
Average monthly working hours were 179.1, a 13.3-hour decrease compared with 2023, of which 152.2 were regular hours and 26.9 were billed as overtime, it added.
Among employers, 39.7 percent reported issues, with the language barrier being the most common problem, followed by “communication issues,” the report said.
Other complaints such as “poor attitude and discipline,” and workers disappearing were reported by more than 10 percent of employers.
Those who reported issues saw the language barrier as the most common problem, followed by “excessive phone use and chatting,” “communication issues” and “poor attitude and discipline,” it added.
For domestic care workers, the average monthly salary of NT$24,000 was a NT$1,000 increase in regular pay and overtime wages compared with 2023, although that was in part due to June having an extra Sunday compared with the previous year, the ministry said.
Domestic care workers averaged 10.3 hours daily, with 57 percent having days off, while 36.4 percent had one day off per month and 13 percent had two to three days off, it said.
For households employing care workers, 89 percent reported alternative care plans for the caregiver’s days off, of whom 45 percent expressed interest in applying for subsidies for alternative care plans, it said.
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛) has “returned home” to Taiwan, and there are no plans to hold a funeral for the TV star who died in Japan from influenza- induced pneumonia, her family said in a statement Wednesday night. The statement was released after local media outlets reported that Barbie Hsu’s ashes were brought back Taiwan on board a private jet, which arrived at Taipei Songshan Airport around 3 p.m. on Wednesday. To the reporters waiting at the airport, the statement issued by the family read “(we) appreciate friends working in the media for waiting in the cold weather.” “She has safely returned home.
A Vietnamese migrant worker on Thursday won the NT$12 million (US$383,590) jackpot on a scratch-off lottery ticket she bought from a lottery shop in Changhua County’s Puyan Township (埔鹽), Taiwan Lottery Co said yesterday. The lottery winner, who is in her 30s and married, said she would continue to work in Taiwan and send her winnings to her family in Vietnam to improve their life. More Taiwanese and migrant workers have flocked to the lottery shop on Sec 2 of Jhangshuei Road (彰水路) to share in the luck. The shop owner, surnamed Chen (陳), said that his shop has been open for just
MUST REMAIN FREE: A Chinese takeover of Taiwan would lead to a global conflict, and if the nation blows up, the world’s factories would fall in a week, a minister said Taiwan is like Prague in 1938 facing Adolf Hitler; only if Taiwan remains free and democratic would the world be safe, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Francois Wu (吳志中) said in an interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. The ministry on Saturday said Corriere della Sera is one of Italy’s oldest and most read newspapers, frequently covers European economic and political issues, and that Wu agreed to an interview with the paper’s senior political analyst Massimo Franco in Taipei on Jan. 3. The interview was published on Jan. 26 with the title “Taiwan like Prague in 1938 with Hitler,” the ministry
Twenty-four Republican members of the US House of Representatives yesterday introduced a concurrent resolution calling on the US government to abolish the “one China” policy and restore formal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. Led by US representatives Tom Tiffany and Scott Perry, the resolution calls for not only re-establishing formal relations, but also urges the US Trade Representative to negotiate a free-trade agreement (FTA) with Taiwan and for US officials to advocate for Taiwan’s full membership in the UN and other international organizations. In a news release announcing the resolution, Tiffany, who represents a Wisconsin district, called the “one China” policy “outdated, counterproductive