Taiwan is going to make foreign labor cheaper for local industries amid a domestic slowdown by reducing their monthly wage by 16 percent from September, officials said yesterday.
"Foreign laborer will have NT$2,500 (US$71.68) deducted from their monthly wage as payment for room and board, but they will be compensated by paying less fees to manpower brokers," said the Cabinet Secretary General Chiou I-jen (邱義仁).
The current minimum wage for foreign laborers in Taiwan is NT$15,840 a month, but the actual cost for employers often runs up to as much as NT$20,000 with room and board added, according to the Council of Labor Affairs.
Chiou said Taiwan is in talks with Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam on the issue and they have in principle agreed to the wage reduction in exchange for lower brokerage fees to manpower agencies on both sides.
In other words, the brokering fees shouldered by foreign workers will be slashed by NT$6,000 in Taiwan and another NT$6,000 in the country where they come from.
"The wage reduction is expected to be implemented as early as September," a council official said.
Taiwanese employers are expected to save as much as NT$824 million a month from the wage reduction, raising concerns that more employers would prefer to hire foreign workers over local ones amid a record jobless rate.
Taiwan's unemployment rate reached an all-time high of 4.51 percent in June as graduates began their search for jobs in the midst of the economic slowdown.
As a result, Taiwan is expected to reduce the number of foreign workers in the manufacturing and construction sectors by 15,000 annually.
RSS