As the nation emerges from the economic slump, nearly 80 percent of employers are planning to grant year-end bonuses this year, worth an average of 1.07 months’ salary, with the financial sector topping the list at 1.61 months, slightly down from 1.62 months last year, a survey showed yesterday.
Of companies planning year-end bonuses this year, 73.4 percent felt reluctant to increase their payouts because of the impact of last year’s economic downturn, said 104 Job Bank, which polled 984 enterprises between Dec. 7 and Dec. 10.
“The survey suggested that amid the better-than-expected economic recovery, enterprises are remembering to reward their employees,” 104 Job Bank public relations manager Max Fang (方光瑋) said at a press conference yesterday.
In the poll, 13.2 percent of employers said they decided to increase year-end bonuses this year to reward their employees for their hard work during the financial crunch, while 9.3 percent chose to increase bonuses given at other times of the year, Fang said.
The remaining 4.1 percent of companies that decided to grant bonuses did not say whether they would increase payouts or keep them the same.
The survey showed that more than 50 percent of companies would grant year-end bonuses based on their employees’ performances, noting that those with excellent performance could receive 1.78 times more than the average bonus.
“Because the company performed pretty well and achieved its objectives this year, we planned to give out an average of 6.5 months for year-end bonuses, about 1.5 months more than last year,” Farglory Group (遠雄集團) Human Resources Department assistant vice president Daisy Chen (陳美玲) said yesterday.
Chen said that Farglory granted bonuses “100 percent based on employee performance,” with the amount ranging from one month’s salary to 10 months.
The survey also indicated that nearly 60 percent of companies are likely to increase salaries this year by an average of 3.38 percent, with the financial sector giving the biggest pay raises among all industries at nearly 6 percent.
Separately, another survey conducted by Grant Thornton Taiwan showed the nation’s privately held businesses remained slightly less optimistic toward the outlook of the economy over the next 12 months compared with their global counterparts.
The survey, which polled 7,400 private companies across 36 economies around the world between October and November last year, showed that 23 percent of Taiwanese private businesses were upbeat about the economy in the following year, compared with 60 percent in China.
Grant Thornton strategic business development manager Sonny Chiang (江睿垚) said yesterday that private Taiwanese companies had become optimistic about the economy this year after 50 percent of them expressed pessimism last year.
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