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"Exempt" on a U.S. Offer Letter, Overtime in Taipei: How Taiwan Decides Which Managers Fall Outside the Hour Rules

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Your offer letter from the U.S. parent says "exempt." Does that word carry any weight once you are on the payroll of the Taiwan subsidiary? Not under Taiwan's labor law. Taiwan's Labor Standards Act has no general exempt category, and the one route around its hour rules runs through a government list, a signed agreement and an approval stamp.

Two tests that sound alike

U.S. readers already know the executive exemption under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Labor Department's Fact Sheet #17A lists a salary basis of not less than $684 per week, a primary duty of managing the enterprise or a recognized department, regularly directing at least two full-time employees or their equivalent, and authority to hire or fire, or recommendations on those decisions that are given particular weight. The same fact sheet states: "Job titles do not determine exempt status."

Taiwan's definition looks familiar. Article 50-1(1) of the Enforcement Rules of the Labor Standards Act describes supervisory and managerial staff as supervisor-level employees who run the business's operations and management and hold decision-making power over the hiring, firing or working conditions of ordinary workers. The Taiwan text speaks of decision-making power. It says nothing about recommendations.

That is where the resemblance ends.

Three gates the FLSA does not have

First comes a list. Article 84-1 applies only to workers in categories the central authority has approved and announced. The Ministry of Labor publishes its list of current Article 84-1 workers as a PDF; its entries run from July 11, 1997 to November 14, 2024. Most manager entries are tied to an industry: management staff in information services (announced March 4, 1998), in legal services, and manager-level staff in advertising. There is no entry for managers in manufacturing or banking as such.

One entry crosses industries. Announced May 23, 2019, it covers supervisory and managerial staff whom a business pays at least NT$150,000 a month and who meet the Article 50-1(1) definition. The ministry's e-newsletter No. 46 says the two conditions must both be met, and neither can be missing.

Paper is the second gate. The employer and the manager must agree in writing on working hours, regular days off, leave and women's night work, taking the Act's standards as a reference and without harming the worker's health and welfare (Article 84-1, paragraph 2). When the employer files that agreement, it has to cover the job title, duties, responsibilities or nature of the work, hours, days off, leave and night work for women (Enforcement Rules, Article 50-2).

Approval by the local labor authority is the third. It does not mean unlimited hours. Taipei City publishes a review table in its official gazette (2022) that sets working-time caps for each designated category.

Pass all three, and Articles 30, 32, 36, 37 and 49 stop applying. Article 24, the overtime-pay rule, is not on that list. How hours beyond the agreed schedule are counted goes back to the approved agreement itself.

When a gate is missing

Then the ordinary rules apply to the manager. The Ministry of Labor restated this in an August 19, 2022 press release: workers in a listed category whose written agreement was never filed with the local authority, or was not approved, stay under the Act's general rules. Normal hours are 8 a day and 40 a week (Article 30). Overtime needs the consent of the union or, without one, the labor-management meeting, and normal plus overtime hours may not exceed 12 in a day, with 46 overtime hours a month as the base cap; the same consent can raise the monthly figure to 54, within 138 hours over three months (Article 32). Under Article 24, the first two overtime hours carry at least one-third extra on the hourly wage and the next two at least two-thirds; work on a rest day carries at least one and one-third extra for the first two hours and one and two-thirds after that.

Your employer holds the records. It must keep daily attendance records to the minute for five years and hand over a copy on request (Article 30, paragraphs 5 and 6). In court, hours shown in those records are presumed to be work done with the employer's consent (Labor Incident Act, Article 38). Monthly wages are generally treated as periodic payments of one year or less under Civil Code Article 126, so each installment has a five-year limitation period. For the employer, violating Article 24 or 32 of the Labor Standards Act can mean an administrative fine of NT$20,000 to NT$1 million (Labor Standards Act, Article 79).

Field engineers face a different version of the same question. It is covered in On Call at the Fab.

The first thing an English-speaking lawyer in Taipei will want to know is whether the local labor authority ever approved an Article 84-1 agreement for your job. If no approval letter exists, the ordinary rules apply, and the work turns to requesting your attendance records, calculating unpaid overtime and representing you in mediation at the labor bureau or in court labor mediation (see labor dispute mediation for foreign employees). If one does exist, the lawyer checks your actual duties and pay against the list entry and the Article 50-1 definition. For a U.S. parent, the same check comes before drafting an agreement and filing it for approval. Consultations in English are available by email at wei@hoveringlaw.com.tw (employment matters); the Taipei office of Hovering International Law Firm (昊鼎國際法律事務所) is at 7F-2, No. 35, Sec. 1, Chengde Rd., Datong Dist., Taipei City 103 (臺北市大同區承德路一段35號7樓之2).

The FLSA asks what your job is. Taiwan asks that too, then asks to see the list entry, the signed agreement and the approval letter.

Sources

Checked October 28, 2026. Taiwan statutes are cited from the Chinese text.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does the word "exempt" in my U.S. offer letter change anything in Taiwan?
Not by itself. The Labor Standards Act has no general exemption for salaried managers. Working hours can be set outside Articles 30, 32, 36, 37 and 49 only for workers in categories the Ministry of Labor has designated, under a written agreement that the local labor authority approves (Article 84-1). A label in an offer letter is not one of those conditions.
Does Taiwan have a pay threshold like the $684-a-week salary level in the Labor Department's Fact Sheet #17A?
Only for one entry. The Ministry of Labor's May 23, 2019 announcement covers supervisory and managerial staff earning at least NT$150,000 a month who also meet the definition in Article 50-1(1) of the Enforcement Rules, and the ministry says both conditions are required. The list's entries for managers in information services, legal services and advertising do not state a pay figure.
What can I ask my Taiwan employer for before deciding whether to make a claim?
A copy of your attendance records. Employers must keep minute-by-minute daily records for five years and may not refuse an employee's request for a copy (Article 30, paragraphs 5 and 6). It also helps to find the written Article 84-1 agreement you signed, if any, because an approved agreement has to state your job title, duties, responsibilities and working hours (Enforcement Rules, Article 50-2).

This article provides general information and is not legal advice on any individual matter.

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