The Ministry of Labor (MOL) yesterday announced an expanded subsidy scheme aimed at encouraging businesses to provide more childcare support to employees, including higher subsidies for employer-provided childcare allowances, with foreign employees also eligible.
“We have looked at the results of employer-provided childcare efforts so far and believe they have indeed been insufficient,” Minister of Labor Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) told a news conference in Taipei.
Many business owners understand Taiwan’s low birthrate problem and are willing to help employees with childcare, “but they still face significant difficulties in terms of institutional support and resources,” Hung said.
Photo: Taipei Times file photo
In view of those challenges, the ministry would introduce nine new or expanded subsidy measures building on existing policies in the hope that more businesses would take that “extra step to support employees,” Hung said.
At present, only employers with 100 or more employees are legally required to provide breastfeeding rooms and either childcare facilities or suitable childcare measures, while childcare allowances are not mandatory.
Among the changes set to take effect on May 1, are raised subsidies for employers that provide childcare allowances to employees of up to NT$10,000 (US$316) per employee per year, with subsidy rates ranging from 50 to 70 percent depending on the size of the company.
The childcare allowance applies to employees who have children aged 12 or under, the ministry said.
Under the current system, the ministry subsidizes 50 percent of the annual allowance paid by employers for each employee’s child if the amount is below NT$8,000, while allowances of NT$8,000 or more qualify for a maximum subsidy of NT$4,000.
Another expansion would be the removal of the requirement that employees’ children be enrolled in childcare institutions for employers to qualify for subsidies, meaning workers who rely on care provided by family members or babysitters would also be covered under the new scheme, the ministry said,
Along with other measures, including subsidies for employer-run childcare facilities, the expanded scheme would have a budget of NT$142.4 million this year, rising to a projected NT$213.41 million next year, with the subsidies to be financed by the Employment Insurance Fund, the ministry said.
Taiwan-based foreign companies and foreign nationals working in Taiwan would also be covered by the expanded scheme, Hung said, adding that migrant blue-collar workers are likewise “not excluded.”
There is “no differential treatment” in how the scheme is applied to employees of different nationalities, said Huang Wei-chen (黃維琛), director of the ministry’s Department of Employment Welfare and Retirement.
“If a company offers the same benefit to all employees, including migrant workers, we will handle its subsidy application on the same basis,” Huang said.
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