Very few people satisfied with their New Year's bonus

Only about 12 percent of the respondents to a recent online opinion poll said they were satisfied with the size of their year-end bonus, a local manpower agency said yesterday.

The 1111 Job Bank (1111人力銀行) conducted a survey on salaried people between Dec. 2 and Jan. 9 through the Internet to explore the size of their year-end bonus and their career plans after the Lunar New Year festival. A total of 2,872 valid samples were collected in the Job Bank survey.

According to the poll results, only 11.83 percent were happy with their year-end bonus.

The average size of the year-end bonus in the private sector was equivalent to 1.57 times the usual monthly salary, slightly higher than the 1.5 times the monthly salary for government employees.

The poll found that the banking and insurance services boasted the highest amount of year-end bonus, at 2.46 times the usual monthly pay; followed by travel and restaurant services at 2.42 months; department stores and retailing services at 2.14 months; export and import trade at 1.79 months; traditional manufacturing industries at 1.6 months; and high-tech industries at 1.43 months.

The average year-end bonus for employees in the news media, advertising, publishing and cultural services was less than a month, according to the poll.

The survey also discovered that 93.33 percent of companies in the banking and insurance services have offered a year-end bonus to their employees; the ratio in the traditional manufacturing and export/import trade sectors also exceeded 80 percent; but less than 60 percent of companies in the travel, news media, advertising, publishing and biomedical industries have offered a year-end bonus.

According to the poll, 84 percent of the respondents said they intend to change jobs after the Lunar New Year holiday.

In a separate online survey of 1,084 corporation owners conducted by the 1111 Job Bank, nearly 60 percent said they plan to recruit new employees after the Lunar New Year festival, while 20 percent said they plan to downsize their work force. Up to 57.14 percent of news media operators said they plan to lay off employees after the festival.