Listed companies and foreign incorporated firms that plan to give year-end bonuses are expected to award an amount equivalent to 1.82 times the worker’s monthly salary ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, a survey released by online job bank yes123 showed yesterday.
However, year-end bonuses planned by employers not listed on the local equity market would be lower at 1.2 times the monthly salary, while the average for listed and unlisted firms combined is expected to be 1.45 times the monthly salary, the survey said.
Many local employers give year-end bonuses to employees ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, which this year falls in February.
The job bank said listed firms tend to issue higher year-end bonuses because they are more capitalized and profitable than non-listed firms.
As the TAIEX has remained above 10,000 points since May on hopes of higher profitability, many listed firms have decided to give higher year-end bonuses, the job bank added.
With the Lunar New Year holiday approaching, whether employers plan to issue year-end bonuses has been the focus of much local media coverage.
The survey showed that 89.9 percent of 1,477 employers surveyed said they are planning to issue year-end bonuses ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday, up from 80.7 percent in a similar poll conducted by the online job bank last year.
The job bank said the figure shows the local economy is on the path to recovery on expectations that GDP growth for this year and next year would top 2 percent, which has prompted more employers to give generous year-end bonuses.
According to the latest government forecasts, GDP is expected to grow 2.58 percent this year and 2.29 percent next year, improving from 1.41 percent last year.
Among the employers who plan to issue year-end bonuses, those in the financial services sector are expected to give the highest bonuses, equivalent to 2.22 times monthly wages, ahead of the information technology sector (1.83 months), the old economy manufacturing sector (1.67 months), the transportation and logistics sector (1.56 months), and the healthcare and biotech sector (1.5 months), the survey found.
However, media and public relations firms lagged behind, with employers planning to issue bonuses equivalent to only 0.5 times the monthly wage, the survey showed.
Firms in the culture and education sectors plan to pay 0.7 times the monthly wage, while those in the hospitality sector are to pay 0.9 times and property companies 0.93 times, the survey showed.
Among those employers who plan to issue year-end bonuses, 86.4 percent said they would give the money only to full-time employees and not part-time workers, the survey showed.
For those employers who do not plan to pay year-end bonuses, 68.6 percent said the new rigid workweek rules have increased operating costs so they cannot afford to issue year-end bonuses, the survey showed.
The poll, conducted from Dec. 6 to Dec. 8, had a confidence level of 95 percent and a margin of error of plus or minus-2.55 percentage points.
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