A survey by Taiwan’s Council of Labour Affairs shows an average wage per hour of a foreign care attendant in Taiwan in 2010 was 47.3 Taiwan dollars, less than half of the country’s minimum wage rate of 98 Taiwan dollars per hour.
The Council of Labour Affairs or CLA conducts a survey among 7,201 workplaces that hire a migrant worker and 5,064 households that hire a foreign care attendant enquiring about their management of migrant worker in 2010. Such a survey has been conducted biennially since 2000.
The survey shows an average salary of a migrant worker in an industrial sector was 23,122 Taiwan dollars per month in 2010, 49 dollars higher than in 2009. It also shows that among all migrant workers, those works in manufacturing industry received the highest salary on average, 23,168 Taiwan dollars, while those works in constructing industry received a salary of 21,298 Taiwan dollars on an average. They work around 10.2 hours per day.
Furthermore, the CLA shows an average wage per hour of a care attendant was at 12.9 Taiwan dollars. The total number of working hour per month could also reach 387 because they do not have a weekly holiday. Their average wage rate per month was at 18,341 Taiwan dollars, comprising of a basic pay of 15,983 dollars and an overtime pay of 2358 dollars, which means that their average wage per hour was at 47.3 dollars or less than half of the country’s minimum wage rate of 98 dollars per hour.
Today, care attendants in Taiwan do not receive protection under the labour standard law. However, the CLA are working to amend the law to extend protection to the care attendants.
The survey also shows that 85 percent of the surveyed households are willing to pay care attendants the minimum wage rate while 64 percent are willing to give them a rest period of several hours during a working day.
