Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) yesterday announced that the city government has raised the minimum monthly salary of childcare providers at privately managed nurseries funded by the government to NT$38,000, and that it is working to lower the maximum childcare ratio to one adult to four children.
Chiang said he has three children, including two younger than two years old, so he understands the difficulties and stress that childcare providers experience.
“Therefore, we have good news for childcare providers — the Taipei City Government is raising the minimum salary of childcare providers to NT$38,000,” he said while visiting a public nursery in Nangang District (南港).
Photo: CNA
The minimum salary stood at NT$34,000 before the central government raised it to NT$35,485 last year. The city government raised it further to NT$38,000, retroactive to January.
“Moreover, the [maximum] child-to-provider ratio will be lowered from 5:1 to 4:1,” he said. “It is to reduce the childcare providers’ burden and improve education and care quality,” he said.
There are currently 81 privately managed, publicly funded childcare facilities in the city, and the city government hopes to increase the number to 103 by 2026, and the care capacity from about 1,700 to about 2,200 young children.
“As we increase the number of public childcare facilities, we hope to improve the working conditions of childcare providers, so they can have less concerns when taking care of children,” he said.
An estimated 512 childcare providers should benefit from the salary increase, he said.
Chiang added that discussions abound about artificial intelligence (AI) systems replacing human workers in certain jobs, but the experience and professional abilities of childcare providers, including their affection, can never be replaced by AI systems, so the city hopes to improve their working conditions and nurture more excellent childcare staff.
Separately, the mayor was asked to comment on Democratic Progressive Party Taipei City Councilor Chien Hsu-pei’s (簡舒培) report that a Chinese temporary worker at the city government had uploaded several short videos of Chiang at different events to Douyin (抖音), the Chinese version of TikTok, accompanied by a hashtag “The two sides of the Strait are one family.”
Chiang said that based on the city government’s understanding, the worker was hired by the city’s health department in August last year using the Ministry of Labor’s job matching site.
The worker only handled general affairs and transportation-
related work, and did not deal with confidential data, he said, adding that she has left the job.
He said the city government would also remind city workers not to conduct non-work-related activities at work.
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