Minister worries opposition bill will upend live-in caregiver market

Taipei, Dec. 30 (CNA) Taiwan's Labor Minister on Monday expressed concern that a bill sponsored by the country's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) caucus could throw the supply and demand of migrant domestic caregivers off balance if it clears the legislative floor.

The bill, which calls for waiving a Barthel Index-based health evaluation for people aged 80 and older, is slated to be reviewed at a plenary session at the Legislature Tuesday.

If passed, the bill will immediately cause demand for migrant caregivers to outstrip supply, as an additional 530,000 Taiwanese seniors will become eligible to hire a live-in caregiver, Labor Minister Hung Sun-han (洪申翰) said in a social media post.

As of November, Taiwan had about 227,000 migrant caregivers, with the number increasingly steadily by about 10,000 per year, he said.

Past data suggests that about 160,000, or 30 percent, of eligible families, are likely to apply to recruit a migrant live-in caregiver, Hung said. That would crowd out families with seriously ill members who actually need live-in caregivers, Hung said.

Taiwan is already at a disadvantage when comparing the average monthly salary earned by migrant domestic caregivers, just over NT$20,000, with the monthly average of NT$40,000 to NT$50,000 made by their counterparts in Japan and South Korea, Hung said.

The situation could soon be worsened by migrant workers choosing jobs that serve healthier care recipients over laborious ones due to the surge in demand, Hung added.