Taiwan's Migrant Recruitment Reform Raises Fears of a Home Care Shortage

A NT$10,900 wage gap puts families under pressure

Taiwan's plan to make manufacturing and fishing employers pay overseas recruitment costs for migrant workers is exposing a difficult problem for families who depend on foreign caregivers: how to compete for workers when household care offers lower pay and fewer legal protections.

The Ministry of Labor is pursuing a phased approach over three years for manufacturing and fishing. Household employers are outside the current plan. Yet family representatives fear that removing recruitment charges from industrial workers could make factory jobs more attractive, leaving people with severe disabilities and older adults struggling to find care.

The pay gap is already substantial. Migrant caregivers employed directly by households receive a basic monthly wage of NT$20,000. The planned industrial minimum cited in the debate is NT$30,900, a difference of NT$10,900. Factory workers also have protections under the Labor Standards Act covering working hours, rest and overtime. Domestic caregivers fall outside that law.

For families, the consequences reach beyond recruitment paperwork. A missing caregiver can mean an adult child leaving work, parents in their seventies handling physically demanding tasks, or a person with a severe disability losing help with eating, bathing and turning in bed.

Workers face their own calculation: how much money they can send home, how much they owe recruiters and whether they will have time to rest. Taiwan's debate brings those needs together with the financial limits of households already paying a large share of their income for care.

The proposed reform would change who pays recruitment costs. Its effects on home care would also depend on wages, working conditions and the support available when a caregiver leaves or takes a day off.

What zero recruitment fees would change

The Ministry of Labor's proposed approach would shift overseas recruitment and related expenses from migrant workers to employers in manufacturing and fishing. Such expenses can include recruitment services, training and travel. The reform is connected to Taiwan's trade discussions with the United States and international supply chain requirements against forced labor.

Recruitment debt matters because a worker who borrows heavily to obtain a job may spend months repaying the cost. That financial pressure can make leaving a harmful workplace much harder. Requiring employers to pay recruitment expenses is intended to reduce that pressure at the start of employment.

The accompanying legal proposals concern Articles 5 and 40 of the Employment Service Act. They would explicitly prohibit employers or recruitment agencies from retaining passports, work permits and other identity documents, or collecting security deposits. Other proposed measures include reviewing recruitment agency assessment standards and improving direct hiring services.

The Fisheries Agency has already amended rules prohibiting the retention of documents belonging to foreign workers on distant water fishing vessels and is pursuing recruitment without worker fees in that sector.

Households have not been assigned a recruitment bill under the current proposal. No calendar date for full implementation, household extension or a final schedule of covered overseas charges was given. Families discussing possible bills above NT$100,000 are describing a feared future expense rather than a published household tariff.

One son's income shows the limits of private care

Xiaoyang's mother once worked nights as a care worker in a long term care institution while looking after her own family during the day. A stroke at age 60 left her unable to use her right hand. She needs assistance eating and bathing, and her unsteady walking creates a risk of falling.

Xiaoyang left construction work for factory cleaning with more flexible shifts so he could accompany her to medical appointments and rehabilitation. He also takes occasional construction jobs. Together, the work brings in about NT$60,000 a month.

The caregiver's wages, food and accommodation cost more than NT$30,000 monthly, taking over half his earnings before rehabilitation equipment and other treatment expenses. His family has four children, but his two sisters have their own households and his younger brother lives elsewhere. Xiaoyang remains with his parents.

He worries that an additional recruitment payment could overwhelm that budget, particularly if the employment relationship ends early. His comparison with factories is practical: a company has personnel and management staff, while a household must handle recruitment, employment problems and daily care alongside its own work and family responsibilities.

For a woman with paralysis, losing a worker means losing daily support

Xiaoling, 46, has lived with paralysis since childhood and depends on others for daily activities. Her parents are now in their seventies, and their pensions support the household. She earns a small amount through online sales.

Her Indonesian caregiver has repeatedly requested a change of employer, almost every month according to the family's account. The family has improved conditions and raised pay to retain her, but she has said she will leave when her contract of three years ends, seeking a household with a lighter workload.

Xiaoling sought help from the Taiwan association representing families of people with disabilities and caregiver employers because she fears being unable to afford another large recruitment expense. For her parents, finding a replacement is also a question of whether they can continue supporting her at home.

Heidi Chang, the association's chair, describes a similar financial strain in her own household. One caregiver costs about NT$28,000 a month including overtime. Her family's intensive care needs require two workers, bringing employment costs to about NT$56,000 before living and medical expenses.

Those figures show why basic pay alone gives an incomplete picture of a household budget. Families may already pay overtime and provide food and accommodation, while caregivers still lack the statutory working time and rest protections available in factories.

The wage dispute has been building for years

The current disagreement follows an earlier debate over raising domestic caregiver wages from NT$17,000 to at least NT$20,000. The NT$17,000 rate had remained in place since 2015. During the 2022 debate, it was NT$8,250 below the minimum for migrant workers in industry and construction.

The principal developments span several years:

• 2015: The NT$17,000 monthly wage for private migrant caregivers and domestic helpers was in place.
• 2020: Indonesia sought recruitment without worker fees in destination countries, according to Chang.
• 2022: Taiwan's Ministry of Labor proposed raising caregiver and domestic helper wages by at least NT$3,000, following an employment security fund committee recommendation.
• Current proposal: Manufacturing and fishing employers would take responsibility for overseas recruitment expenses through a phased process over three years, with household employers excluded.

Chang links the earlier increase to NT$20,000 to negotiations between Taiwan and Indonesia after Indonesia's demand. She fears that extending employer payment to industry could lead Indonesia to seek the same arrangement for household caregivers.

The wage gap has continued to grow. Compared with the NT$8,250 difference cited in 2022, the prospective NT$10,900 gap would be NT$2,650 wider. Huang Tzu-hua, secretary general of the Taoyuan domestic caregivers' occupational union, argues that unequal wages, working hours and rest protections are already making recruitment difficult.

Caregivers are choosing between jobs and countries

Hsin Ping-lung, an adjunct associate professor at National Central University's institute of human resource management, says Taiwan faces competition beyond its own factories. Japan and South Korea are recruiting more actively from Southeast Asia and offering higher wages.

Hsin expects growth in the number of workers leaving origin countries to slow as their economies and population structures change. Taiwan therefore faces rising demand for migrant labor while competing destinations become more attractive.

He views recruitment without worker fees as a useful incentive for Taiwan, although employers would face higher recruitment costs. For a worker comparing destinations, avoiding a large initial payment can change how much of the eventual salary reaches the family at home.

Chen Hsiu-lien of the Taiwan International Workers' Association made a related argument during the 2022 wage debate. She called for migrant caregivers to receive Labor Standards Act protection and warned that better opportunities in Japan and South Korea could draw workers away from Taiwan.

Training is another part of the employment bargain. During that earlier debate, Chang said origin countries should provide professional preparation and Taiwan should improve entry qualifications for caregivers. Families requiring complex assistance need workers with suitable skills, while workers need preparation and support for the tasks they are expected to perform.

Paying the bill also requires tracing the charges

Liu Mei-chun, a professor at National Chengchi University's institute of labor research, cautions that requiring employers to pay will not by itself eliminate excessive overseas recruitment charges. Taiwan has limited reach over chains of recruiters and intermediaries operating in other countries.

Passport costs, medical examinations and service charges are among the items whose treatment needs to be clarified. Employers taking responsibility for a bill would need an understandable breakdown of what each charge covers and who receives it.

Liu proposes changing recruitment agencies into providers of training, help with settling into Taiwan and employment management services, with the users of those services paying for them. She also supports allowing migrant workers to change jobs freely, giving workers greater ability to choose better employment.

Under such an approach, recruitment reform would involve more than moving an invoice from a worker to an employer. It would require clearer services, traceable charges and a way to address disputes when a placement fails.

Could institutions employ caregivers who work in homes?

Huang proposes a different employment structure: institutions would hire foreign caregivers, while the government would partly subsidize families of people with disabilities. Workers employed through institutions could receive Labor Standards Act protections, and households could obtain care without carrying every employment responsibility themselves.

She also calls on the Ministry of Health and Welfare to assess care workforce needs and plan the roles of Taiwanese care workers and migrant caregivers together.

Chen Ching-ning, secretary general of the Taiwan Association of Family Caregivers, says about 920,000 people need long term care, including people with disabilities and dementia. Approximately 210,000 households employ migrant caregivers. Moving all those arrangements to institutional employment quickly would be difficult, she says.

Chen supports adding institutional hiring and dispatch as an option over time, rather than immediately replacing all direct household employment. She sees potential for better support at work, stronger quality management and improved employment conditions.

The practical benefit would depend on staffing. A caregiver taking leave needs another trained person to cover essential tasks. Migrant affairs specialist Hsueh Chien-chung points to Hong Kong's entitlement to at least one rest day in every seven days and Singapore's requirement, introduced in 2023, for at least one monthly rest day that cannot be replaced with overtime pay.

For Taiwan, funding rest and funding replacement care belong in the same discussion. A family caring for someone who cannot move independently needs reliable help throughout the week, while the person providing that assistance needs time away from work.

An ageing population makes retaining experience more urgent

The National Development Council's projections put Taiwan's population at about 12.15 million by 2075, with people aged 65 and above accounting for 52.9 percent. The working age population, aged 15 to 64, is projected to fall to approximately 5.13 million, or 42 percent of the total.

The projected working age population compares with 15.76 million in the projection's starting period, a reduction of about two thirds. Taiwan would have fewer potential workers and family caregivers while older residents make up a much larger share of the population.

Retaining experienced migrants is therefore part of the care discussion. During the December 2025 employment cap protest, workers in Taipei demanded an end to rules generally limiting industrial migrant employment to 12 years, with qualifying caregivers able to work for up to 14 years.

Hsueh argues that Taiwan should make it easier for experienced workers to remain through changes of occupation and longer employment, even when permanent settlement is not their goal. Keeping people who already understand the language, work and care routines could reduce repeated reliance on recruiting newcomers.

Taiwan's immediate choice is how to pay for fair recruitment without leaving care households unsupported. The proposals already under discussion connect that question to wages, rest, training, replacement care and the ability to keep experienced workers. Families and workers need those arrangements to function together.

Key Points

• Taiwan proposes making manufacturing and fishing employers pay overseas migrant recruitment expenses through a phased process over three years.
• Household employers are outside the current plan, but family representatives fear stronger competition for caregivers.
• A planned industrial minimum of NT$30,900 would exceed the NT$20,000 basic domestic caregiver wage by NT$10,900.
• Domestic caregivers lack Labor Standards Act protections available to industrial workers.
• Caregiver advocates propose institutional employment, public subsidies and coordinated planning for care staffing.
• Population projections point to growing pressure on care services as Taiwan's working age population shrinks.