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Taiwan’s labor insurance includes multiples facets of protection including old-age pension benefits, disability pension benefits, and survivor pension benefits.

Taiwan’s labor insurance premium will be raised by half a percent on January 1, 2011. This will increase the insurance rate to 8%. The half-percent premium hike will continue annually until 2014, by which time the rate will reach 10%. Following that, the overall rate will continue increasing regularly every other year until 2017, when it will reach 13%.

Employers have to cover 70% of the insurance premium payment for their employees, which will result in a national outlay of TWD $7 billion (roughly USD $233 million) by employers next year. This year, employers collectively pay approximately TWD $6.56 billion (USD $220 million). Additionally, the rate increase will affect the 9.28 million laborers covered by the insurance who will bear the burden of paying for the remaining 30% of the insurance premium.

Mandated by the revised 2008 Statute for Labor Insurance, the increases are being implemented with the intention of funding the changeover of the insurance’s senior payment plan from a lump-sum to a monthly outlay. While the program brought in a surplus of more than $1.6 billion last year, this mainly stemmed from the sudden changing of the senior payment plan from lump sum to monthly pension.