Gender and age discrimination were the two most common forms of discrimination in the workplace in the past year, the Ministry of Labor said in a report yesterday.
Discrimination based on physical appearance and rank were the other most commonly cited factors, the report said.
The findings were the result of a survey conducted by the ministry to determine the effectiveness of the Gender Equality in Employment Act (性別平等工作法).
Photo: Lee Ching-hui, Taipei Times
In the 22 years since the act was promulgated, the percentage of businesses with more than 30 employees implementing sexual harassment prevention and reporting protocols has improved by more than 53 percentage points, from 35.5 percent to 88.8 percent, the ministry found.
From August 2023 to July last year, 3.6 percent of women and 0.8 percent of men reported that they had experienced sexual harassment in the workplace.
Women who faced harassment said it mostly came from colleagues or clients, with most reported harassment being “non-physical,” such as verbal abuse, unwanted photography, stalking and unwanted messaging.
Sexist remarks and physical contact were the next two most-reported forms of harassment.
The ministry also investigated gender-based unequal treatment in the workplace, finding that 2.8 percent of women received unequal wages compared with their male colleagues, and 1.9 percent reported receiving less-favorable work assignments.
Apart from gender, age discrimination was the most common form, with 3.6 percent of women and 4.5 percent of men reporting that it had happened to them.
For women, the next most-common forms of discrimination were class or rank within the company, physical appearance, and ideology or thinking, all ranging from 1.6 percent to 1.8 percent.
Men reported physical appearance, rank within the firm, and political affiliation as their next most-common form of harassment, ranging from 1.4 percent to 2.1 percent.
The survey collected 3,114 samples from public institutions and 6,901 from private employers, with 4,801 respondents identifying as women and 2,100 as men.
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