Starting from the first day of this July, the monthly wage for a full-time worker over 16 years of age shall not be less than the basic wage rate of NT$19,273. Therefore, when amending the respective classification tables, the Bureau of Labor Insurance (BLI) will also directly adjust both the insurance salaries under the labor insurance scheme and the contribution wages under the labor pension plan that currently fall into the categories of NT$19,047 and NT$19,200 and raise them to the basic wage level, which is NT$19,273, so as to safeguard the rights and interests of workers.
In response to the news reported by the media, BLI explains that the major reason why the number of workers who are subject to this direct adjustment under the labor insurance scheme, which is about 2.42 million, is greater than the number of those under the labor pension plan, which is about 1.14 million, is that Labor Pension Act applies to those workers who are covered by the Labor Standards Act, including domestic workers, spouses of foreign nationalities, and spouses from China, Hong Kong, and Macau. And as for the insured people, including those not only the above-mentioned people, but also those who are not covered by the new labor pension system, including those who have no definite employers or are self-employed and enroll in labor insurance through occupational unions, members of fishermen’s associations, trainees, etc., whose number is about 1 million. Besides, in such business entities as ordinary companies and stores, there are workers who have joined the labor insurance but are not covered by the new labor pension system, including workers of foreign nationalities, cooperative education students, workers covered by the old labor pension system, etc., whose number is about 0.3 million. Consequently, there is such a gap between the number of workers whose basic wages are subject to direct adjustment under the labor insurance scheme and the number of those under the labor pension plan.
In order to prevent an employer from understating any employee’s insurance salary for labor insurance or his/her contribution wage for labor pension, BLI proactively does the checking. In addition to the annual checking project, it conducts the operations of direct adjustment by utilizing the salary/wage income data from the National Taxation Bureau and it does cross-checking by comparing the insurance salaries for labor insurance with the contribution wages for labor pension. Moreover, when a labor inspection agency conducts an inspection project, BLI will work together with it by checking whether there is any understatement of salaries/wages. If the understatement is verified, the employer will be fined by law, so that the rights and interests of the employees may be safeguarded.