As the economy recovers from the financial crisis, more than 80 percent of companies plan to pay out bonuses this year, up 17.5 percentage points from 63.93 percent last year, a survey by the 1111 Job Bank showed.
Topping the list are real estate companies, which plan to distribute an average bonus equivalent to 1.93 months in wages, it said.
The survey, which polled 544 enterprises between Jan. 7 and Jan. 20, said that nearly 37 percent planned to increase their bonus payments by an average of 28 percent from last year.
“Both the number of companies planning to give out year-end bonuses and the amount of bonuses have increased this year because employers are upbeat about the economy in the coming year,” job bank public relations director Henry Ho (何啟聖) told a press conference yesterday.
Taiwanese companies typically distribute bonuses before the end of the lunar year.
One key reason cited by companies for giving out bonuses was to reward employees who “stayed on board” during the economic downturn, Ho said.
“This year’s bonus distribution has more symbolic, rather than material, significance,” Ho said.
Average bonuses for this year increased to 1.73 months’ salary, up from 1.47 months last year, pointing to a likely upturn in the economy, the survey said.
“Overall, sales in the real estate market increased about 30 percent last year compared with the previous year. The top sales agents this year will receive almost NT$10 million in bonuses,” Jessica Hsu (徐佳馨), spokeswoman for HB Housing, told reporters.
The survey showed that nearly 31 percent of companies would still pay out bonuses even if they did not make profits last year, up 6.83 percentage points from the previous year.
Ho said a recent announcement by a number of listed companies that they would grant year-end bonuses might have encouraged other companies to follow suit.
Topping the list of companies planning to grant year-end bonuses are the pharmaceutical and farming industries, followed by trade and distribution industries and manufacturing sectors, the survey showed.
“No pain, no gain. More than 50 percent of companies will give out bonuses based on employee performance,” the survey said.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last