Employees at the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s (MOHW) 26 hospitals nationwide are to get a 4 percent pay raise effective January next year, while nurses at 21 of those hospitals would have received additional pay increases by the end of this month.
The across-the-board 4 percent pay raise in January is aimed at addressing an acute employee shortage at MOHW medical institutions, Yang Nan-ping (楊南屏), deputy executive director of the ministry’s Hospital and Social Welfare Organizations Administration Commission, said yesterday.
The shortage has been aggravated by fierce competition from private hospitals in recent months. Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Cheng Hsin General Hospital, Far Eastern Memorial Hospital and Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital have all increased their salaries this year, and Cathay General Hospital and Taiwan Adventist Hospital are to follow suit next year, he said.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
MOHW hospitals have already taken steps this year to retain their nurses, Yang said.
In March, they were given an average monthly retention bonus of NT$3,000 (US$93.33) and a night shift bonus of NT$1,850 per month, as well as a special ward subsidy of NT$1,600 to NT$2,500 per month and a monthly certificate allowance of NT$2,000, he said.
Those increases brought annual pay for MOHW hospital nurses to NT$648,000 to NT$920,000, he said.
Photo: Rachel Lin, Taipei Times
Eighteen MOHW hospitals last month also raised the monthly shift allowances for nurses by NT$800 to NT$2,000, and another three are to follow suit this month, he said.
The 4 percent increase in January would benefit 8,026 MOHW hospital nurses, raising their monthly pay by NT$1,500 to NT$2,500, which would increase the hospitals’ expenses by at least NT$140 million per year, he said.
The Ministry of Education yesterday also rolled out a five-year NT$33.29 billion program covering pay hikes and support for research programs at universities and higher education institutions.
Part of the package would provide financial support for privately run universities to close the salary gap with public universities.
Starting next year, the monthly salaries of professors, associate professors and assistant professors are to rise by NT$9,350, NT$7,220 and NT$6,320 respectively, benefiting an estimated 18,000 faculty members at public universities, said Chu Chun-chang (朱俊彰), head of the ministry’s Department of Higher Education.
The education ministry has also allocated NT$340 million to expand scholarships and stipends for about 1,200 doctoral students next year, which are to be disbursed according each university’s own criteria.
The education ministry added that it plans to offer subsidies for on-campus housing for students at public and private universities.
A monthly subsidy ranging from NT$1,200 to NT$1,500 is being discussed and could be introduced as early as February next year if the proposal is approved by the Executive Yuan, it said, adding that it is expected to benefit 260,000 students.
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