Up to 42 percent of Taiwanese companies will reduce their Mid-Autumn Festival bonuses by about 3 percent from last year amid rising inflation, a survey showed yesterday.
The survey, conducted by the online human resources company www.104wage.com.tw, showed that employees in the construction and real estate sectors would see the largest reduction in their Mid-Autumn benefits.
Forty percent of the companies in the construction and real estate industries reported a more than 10 percent decline in bonuses, as a result of the real estate downturn this year.
The poll also showed that companies preferred to use the fastest and most convenient way of giving out bonuses, with a majority of 35 percent favoring cash.
Twenty-three percent of companies chose to distribute gifts, while 13 percent said they would not give out any Mid-Autumn Festival bonuses or gifts this year.
Businesses in the northern, southern and eastern parts of the country prefer to give cash to mark the holiday, with 40 percent, 30 percent and 30 percent respectively choosing this option. Meanwhile, a majority or 29 percent of businesses in central Taiwan favored giving gifts over other options.
More than 20 percent of companies in the cultural and education, mass communications, construction, tourism, medical care and environmental sectors said they had not prepared anything for their staff for the festival, the survey showed.
“Based on the survey, more than 50 percent of employees also expected their bonuses to shrink this year, meaning workers are mentally prepared to face hard times ahead,” Yvonne Liu (劉玉芬), manager at 104 Compensation Survey Center (104 薪酬顧問中心), said at a press conference yesterday.
Among those who provided cash gifts, 55 percent of companies kept the value under NT$1,000, which is about the same level as a year earlier.
“This indicates that companies still see the Mid-Autumn Festival as a good opportunity to show that they care about their employees,” Liu said.
For next year, 62 percent of respondents said bonuses would be flat, while 30 percent said they would cut their budget by between 1 percent and 3 percent.
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