Labor Affairs Council to dissuade families hiring foreign caregivers

This article was written by Cecilia Fanchiang and published by the Taiwan Journal on January 6, 2006. It reports that the Council of Labor Affairs recently announced that families in Taiwan would only be allowed to hire foreign caregivers if they could prove that sick or elderly family members need 24-hour care and that no Taiwanese caregivers could do the job.

The new regulations are designed to reduce the number of foreign caregivers in Taiwan and to promote the hiring of locals. It is hoped that a market can be created for domestic caregivers who are eligible for up to US$300 in monthly government subsidies.

Official statistics show that there are about 15,000 Taiwanese who are qualified to work as 24-hour caregivers. They should be paid a reasonable salary of US$1,050 a month. However, the people in Taiwan commonly decline to accept such 24-hour-a-day jobs, and generally command wages that are three times as high as what their foreign counterparts are willing to work for.

Currently there are approximately 138,600 foreign workers in Taiwan, mostly from the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. Those who work as caretakers are paid an average monthly salary of about US$600.

More details about the new regulations issued by the Council of Labor Affairs are provided in this article, including how to determine whether a sick or elderly individual truly needs 24-hour care and how to ensure all caregivers in Taiwan have appropriate training and certification.