Written in response to a news report. Facts and law may have changed since the publication date.
Taiwan's Ministry of Labor is considering a higher salary-disclosure threshold for job vacancies, using 1.75 times the minimum wage as the basis, CNA reported on October 7, 2026. Officials said the proposed amendment would be published for comment before implementation. The current Employment Service Act text still sets the trigger at a regular salary below NT$40,000.
A US company's global job template may say “competitive salary” even though its Taiwan subsidiary has approved a specific pay range. For a Taiwan vacancy paying less than NT$40,000 in regular monthly salary, that wording alone does not give applicants the pay information the current rule requires.
What the current provision requires
Article 5(2)(6) prohibits an employer from recruiting or hiring for a vacancy with regular salary below NT$40,000 without publicly disclosing or informing the applicant of its salary range. The statute allows those two routes. It does not require every covered employer to use a public advertisement, but the applicant still needs the pay information.
The threshold is strictly below NT$40,000. A role paying exactly that amount does not fall within this particular provision. That distinction does not authorize an invented salary figure: Article 5(2)(1) separately prohibits false recruitment advertisements or disclosures.
For a violation of the salary-disclosure provision, Article 67(1) sets an administrative fine of NT$60,000 to NT$300,000. This is a sanction against the violating employer, not a payment that an applicant automatically receives.
Regular pay is different from an annual package
The ministry's recruitment guidance, revised June 6, 2022, includes base salary and monthly fixed allowances and bonuses in regular pay. It excludes overtime pay, year-end and festival bonuses, and travel expenses. An overseas HR team's annual compensation budget therefore cannot simply replace the regular monthly figure used for this rule.
For example, NT$37,000 in base salary plus a fixed monthly NT$2,000 allowance totals NT$39,000. Adding an expected year-end bonus to an annual package does not move that hypothetical vacancy above the regular-pay threshold under the guidance. The calculation depends on the package's pay components, not its headline annual value.
The information belongs before the application
The same guidance says applicants should know the minimum regular salary before applying. It permits a range, a fixed amount or a stated minimum. A bare “negotiable” label gives no minimum. Where an employer uses direct communication instead of a public pay figure, the timing of that communication matters; an eventual offer letter does not show what the applicant knew before applying.
For a bilingual vacancy, a concrete operational question is whether both versions describe the same approved role and pay terms. If an applicant receives only the English message, pay information appearing solely in a separate Chinese posting may never reach them. Keeping the published versions and dated salary communications together can show what information was actually given. That is an evidence practice, not an additional statutory formality.
A change to monitor without mislabeling today's rule
An employer may choose a broader disclosure policy while the proposal is considered. Its internal announcement can identify that choice as company policy, with the present legal threshold stated separately. Calling it a new statutory requirement would blur the distinction between a voluntary change and an enacted one.
The October 7 report leaves consultation and review ahead of implementation. Until a later measure and its commencement are verified, the practical work remains aligning the vacancy's actual pay structure with the information applicants receive under the existing rule.
Fictional scene
Sources
- CNA, October 7, 2026: proposed threshold change and planned consultation.
- Employment Service Act Articles 5 and 67: current disclosure trigger, false-advertising prohibition and nondisclosure fine.
- Ministry of Labor recruitment salary-disclosure guidance, revised June 6, 2022: regular-pay components, forms of disclosure and information before application.
Sources checked: October 13, 2026. No higher threshold was in force on that date. This is general Taiwan-law information, not a determination about a particular employer's recruitment process.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Is a higher threshold already in effect after the October 7 report?
- No. It described a proposal still under study, with public notice and consultation ahead. The current Employment Service Act text keeps the threshold at a regular salary below NT$40,000.
- Does the rule apply when regular monthly salary is exactly NT$40,000?
- Article 5(2)(6) says below NT$40,000, so exactly that amount is outside this particular trigger. The separate prohibition on false recruitment advertisements still applies.
- Must the employer always publish a salary range in the advertisement?
- The statute permits public disclosure or informing the applicant. Ministry guidance says the applicant should know the minimum regular pay before applying, so postponing the information until an offer does not follow that guidance.
This article provides general information and is not legal advice on any individual matter.
