A report from the Taiwanese Ministry of Labour found that overtime work hours continued to decline last year, while more people reported feeling satisfied with their jobs than in 2022.
About 41% of people worked overtime last year for an average of 13.4 hours per month, continuing a downward trend in recent years and falling 0.8 percentage points from 2022, the ministry’s annual survey on employment conditions showed.
The electricity and gas industries had the most overtime with 63.1% of those surveyed in the sectors saying they worked extra hours.
More than half of those working in public service, national defence, transportation, healthcare and social work said they worked overtime.
Last year, 84.6% of those who worked overtime said they were paid extra or given makeup days, an increase of 0.5 percentage points from the year before.
The real-estate industry was the worst at providing overtime compensation, with 19.6% saying they were not given extra pay or other time off.
It was followed by the publishing, audio-visual and communications industries at 16.4%, and retail at 12.9%.
Employers requesting extra work after hours remained a problem, with 24.5% of employees saying their bosses had contacted them after clocking out, although it was down 0.7 percentage points from 2022.
About 17% said they had to complete a task immediately, 5.1% returned to the office and 13.4% did the work elsewhere, averaging to about four hours per month.
However, 74.6% of those surveyed said they were satisfied with their jobs overall, up 1.2 percentage points from 2022. Only 3% said they were not satisfied.
Nearly all those who said they were satisfied cited gender equality as a reason (97.3%), followed by workplace friendships (96.1%) and workspace (94%).
The top three reasons cited by those who were dissatisfied were review and promotion systems (82.6%), wages (64.3%) and compliant mechanisms (60%).
The latest survey was conducted from June to July last year and collected 4,095 valid responses. – Taipei Times
