Employees are expected to receive year-end bonuses equal to 1.27 months’ salary this year, down from 1.34 months last year, a survey released by online job bank 1111 showed on Monday.
The decline reflected caution among employers as economic growth slows and US-China trade tensions linger, career development and public relations division head Daniel Lee (李大華) said.
Only 21.72 percent of responding employers said that profitability last year improved over 2017, while 26.9 percent said profitability worsened, the job bank said, but added that 83 percent said they were still willing to issue year-end bonuses.
The survey showed that the information industry plans to issue average year-end bonuses equal to 1.99 months of salary, the highest among the 10 industries polled.
The financial sector had the next-highest payouts (1.35 months), followed by old-economy manufacturers (1.29 months), the poll found.
Most employees at information firms are guaranteed annual bonuses — performance and year-end bonuses — equal to 14 months of salary, Lee said.
The real-estate sector was shown to be the least generous, giving employees year-end bonuses equal to 0.98 months of salary, a reflection of the past year’s sluggish real-estate market, Lee said.
The results showed that 64 percent of companies planning to pay year-end bonuses expect to hand them out a week before the Lunar New Year holiday.
The survey, conducted from Dec. 20 to Friday last week, collected 870 valid questionnaires, the job bank said.
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