TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan companies will hand out an average of 1.32 months of wages to office workers for their year-end bonus.

With less than a month to go before the Lunar New Year, industries are disclosing their year-end bonus plans. According to a survey by 1111 Job Bank, 85% of companies are willing to distribute year-end bonuses this year, a slight decrease of 3% compared to the previous year.

The average year-end bonus for office workers is 1.32 months, a marginal decrease of 0.02 months from last year. Workers in the IT sector will not receive the largest bonus this year.

According to the survey, the industries most generous with year-end bonuses have seen some reshuffling compared to last year. The business and commercial services sector (financial industry) has taken the top spot this year with an average bonus of 1.93 months. The IT sector ranked second with an average of 1.52 months, and the consumer services industry came in third with an average of 1.45 months.

1111 Job Bank Public Relations manager Tseng Chung-wei (曾仲葳) said 2023 was a year of economic downturn. The National Development Council (NDC) economic monitoring system issued nine consecutive blue lights the past year, indicating an economy in contraction.

Only toward the end of the year, factors such as the sustained vitality in retail and catering industries prompted the NDC to issue a yellow-blue signal, representing sluggishness in the economy.

Tseng said uncertainty in the economy has led business owners to adopt a more conservative approach to distributing year-end bonuses, said Tseng. Business owners will assess the situation with a "prudent and pragmatic perspective."