☑️ The Basics

Currency: New Taiwan dollar, TWD (Rate)

Public Holidays: 16 public holidays (see here)

Employer Taxes: 12.65% + health insurance premium

Official Language: Mandarin Chinese

Payroll frequency: Monthly

13th / 14th Salary: (what's this?) ****13th month salary is not required but is customary and generally provided at Lunar New Year.

Three things to know about employing in Taiwan

1. The majority of employers provide employees cash bonuses in celebration of the three major holiday festivals: the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Dragon Boat Festival, and Lunar New Year. The typical bonus ranges from NT$800 to NT$2000.
2. Employees can choose to either be paid for their overtime work or be granted compensatory leave equal to the number of hours of overtime worked.
3. Non-compete agreements cannot be for longer than two years and employees must be compensated for it at a rate that is not less than 50% of their average monthly wage.

Employment in Taiwan

Notice Period

Notice period for dismissals is based on the length of employment:

• More than three months and less than a year: 10 days
• More than one year but less than three years: 20 days
• Three or more years of service: 30 days

These notice periods are also mandated for employees on indefinite-term contracts resigning.

Employees on fixed-term of over three years can resign after the completion of their contract with 30 days' notice.

Employees on fixed-term contracts of less than three years can only resign if there are serious grounds for resignation or with the employer's agreement.

Termination & Severance

Employees are entitled to severance pay in addition to a notice period or pay in lieu of notice. For employees hired after 2005, the prescribed severance pay is equal to 50% of an average month's wages for each year of service — not to exceed a total of six months wages.

Employees who have worked for less than a year are entitled to severance pay in proportion to the months of service.

Probationary period

Three months is customary.

Minimum Wage

TWD23,800 per month and TWD158 per hour

IP protection and non-compete agreements

Non-compete agreements must be reasonable in scope and include compensation for the employee. Such compensation can be in the form of cash, securities or any other valuable property/asset, and must not be less than 50% of the employee's average monthly wage at the time of termination.

The agreement cannot be for longer than two years.