Migrant workers earned an average of NT$33,000 per month last year in the construction and industrial sectors, and NT$24,000 for domestic care work, the Ministry of Labor said in its annual migrant worker survey today.
The survey was conducted in July and August last year, receiving 8,554 responses — 4,538 from businesses and 4,016 from household employers.
The NT$33,000 monthly salary for those in industry or construction was an increase of NT$2,000 over the previous year, the ministry report said.
Photo: Lee Chin-hui, Taipei Times
Those who worked in the same position for a full year saw an average of NT$15,000 in additional bonuses, such as holiday pay and performance incentives, it said.
For construction and industrial laborers, the average number of days off in June was 11, an increase of 1.9 compared with the year before, it said.
Average monthly working hours stood at 179.1, a 13.3-hour decrease compared to 2023, of which 152.2 were regular hours and 26.9 were billed as overtime, it added.
Among employers, 39.7 percent reported issues, with the language barrier being the most common, followed by “communication issues” being the second-most common, the report said.
Other complaints such as “poor attitude and discipline” and “workers going missing” were reported by more than 10 percent of employers.
For domestic care workers, the average monthly salary of NT$24,000 was a NT$1,000 increase in both regular pay and overtime wages compared with 2023, although these results are in part due to June having an extra Sunday compared to the previous June, the ministry said.
Domestic care workers averaged 10.3 hours daily, with 57 percent having days off, while 36.4 percent had one day off per month and 13 percent had two to three days off, it said.
For households employing care workers, 89 percent reported alternative care plans for the caregiver’s days off, of whom 45 percent expressed interest in applying for subsidies for alternative care plans, it said.
The primary reason that caregivers did not have contracts renewed was “economic burden,” followed by scheduling conflicts, the report said.
Those who reported issues saw the language barrier as the most common problem, followed by “excessive phone use and chatting,” “communication issues” “and “poor attitude and discipline,” it added.
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