Hiring Employees in Taiwan:
Benefits, Time-Off, & Termination
Part Three
This is the final installment of a three-part series on hiring in Taiwan. Check out the first two installments and catch yourself up:
- Part One: Hiring Employees in Taiwan – Company Requirements & Employee Contracts
- Part Two: Hiring Employees in Taiwan – Visas for Expats & Individual Taxes
- Part Three: Hiring Employees in Taiwan – Benefits, Time-Off, & Termination
If your business plans to break into the Taiwanese market, hiring quality employees in Taiwan might be the best option for you to test the market before fully committing to building your business there. Keep reading on as we break down the different aspects that are involved before, during, and after the hiring process.
Mandatory Benefits for Residents
Employers in Taiwan are required by law to provide employee benefits.
These benefits include:
- Social security
- Health insurance
- Employment insurance
- Labor insurance
Discussed below are the employee statutory benefits in Taiwan.
National health insurance (NHI)
National health insurance contributions are allocated among the employer (60%), employee (30%), and the government (10%).
Labor insurance
Taiwanese Legal Entities with more than five employees must contribute to labor insurance. The labor insurance is shared by the employers (70%), employees (20%) and the government (10%). The maximum monthly insurance salary is TWD 45,800.
Employment Insurance
Companies with at least one employee in Taiwan must contribute to the insurer’s employment service insurance premium.
Social Security
At least 6% of employees’ monthly wages shall be contributed to social security by the employers in Taiwan.
Taiwan has a Hukou household registration system similar to mainland China. However, the system in Taiwan is not as strict and employees’ benefits are not closely tied to it.
Time-off From Work
Employers are required to give employees one regular day off and one rest day meaning employees have two days off. Historically, Taiwanese employees were accustomed to working seven days a week, but a five–day week is the new normal. Under these new laws, employers must pay a high amount for overtime work.
Employees can work 54 overtime hours every month, but no more than 138 hours within a three-month period. Employers may also provide extra leave as compensation for overtime work.
Maternity leave
Female employees are entitled to eight weeks of maternity leave. If they’ve been working for the company for over six months, this leave is fully paid at salary. If less than six months, it is paid at 50% of salary.
Annual leave in Taiwan
Employees in Taiwan are entitled to have days off for public holidays. There are ten public holidays per year in Taiwan. They are:
- New Year’s Day
- Chinese New Year’s Eve
- Chinese New Year
- Peace Memorial Day
- Children’s Day
- Qingming Festival
- Labour Day
- Dragon Boat Festival
- Mid-Autumn Festival
- National Day of the Republic of China
In addition, employees are entitled to annual leave depending on the time they have worked for a company:
Employment Termination Policies
Employment relationship should always be terminated while complying with the Labor Standards Act’s terms and conditions, for example:
- Employers must provide advance notice and under special circumstances pay severance
- Employees who want to leave a position are not required to give a minimum number of days noticed to their employer. Therefore, it depends on the rules set forth in their labor contract. It is often required in the contract that they give one month’s notice.
Severance Pay Rules in Taiwan
The termination notice must be provided in advance. The amount of time depends on the duration of the employment:
- For employees who worked more than three months and less than one year, the advance notice should be ten days.
- For employees who worked more than one year but less than three years, the advance notice should be twenty days.
- For employees who worked three years or more, the advance notice should be thirty days.
Summary
It is important to be well-informed about hiring policies if you are interested in entering the Taiwanese market.
The biggest take away is that in order to hire employees, there are two main options:
1) Set up a company in Taiwan and hire employees under your entity
2) Use a PEO’s employment solutions to outsource all employment procedures and requirements.
For companies testing the market and in need of hiring employees or once you’ve tested out the market and are ready to set up your own entity, NNRoad can help!
This is the final installment of our three-part “Hiring Employees in Taiwan” series. Be sure to check out part one and part two so you don’t miss anything!
Thank you to our trusted partner, HROne for the information in this article.
