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New Year bonuses to be smaller this year: survey

Business closures will have a dampening effect on year-end bonuses this year.

Employees are expected to receive an average year-end bonus equal to 1.5 months of salary -- down from 1.66 months a year ago, the Web-based 1111 Job Bank (1111人力銀行) said yesterday.

"The slight ... bonus decrease this year can be attributed to 48,000 company closures last year -- 25 percent up from 2006," chief operating officer Ryan Wu (吳睿穎) told a media briefing.

A lack of investor confidence over political uncertainties caused by both the legislative and presidential elections has also hurt the ability of companies to turn a profit, he said.

Some 47.8 percent of 1,190 employees surveyed said they would receive bonuses this year, but 33.6 percent are not expecting bonuses and 66.5 percent of the latter may try to find another job, the survey found.

However, 78 percent of 668 companies surveyed said they would hand out year-end bonuses.

"The discrepancy is mainly due to a different definition of bonus between workers and companies. Micro-businesses, for example, those with less than 5 employees and lower profitability, usually give out red envelopes instead of the bonuses based on monthly salaries that small and medium-sized firms give," said Roscher Lin (林秉彬), chairman of the National Association of Small and Medium Enterprises (中小企業協會).

The Taoyuan City-based housing agent North House (北區房屋), which gave out the biggest bonus last year -- 35 months salary for one employee -- said it would it give between one and eight months salary this year "in order to evenly distribute the bonuses," said Andy Hsieh (謝萬雄), vice general manager of the administration department.
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