Getting a second job without your first employer knowing

Assuming one has open work rights, would an employer know or be able to find out if an employee gained secondary employment elsewhere in Taiwan?

I’m thinking maybe they would know if the other company started paying NHI too? I’m not sure how that system works, and what data they can access.

to the best of my knowledge they wouldnt know. each company reports for their employees, they dont see other contributions.
they could find out by chance, if for example you choose to teach on the weekends and the student is your boss’s wife’s nephew :slight_smile:

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Nope!! Unless you tell them of course or they spy on you. I don’t see any problems for you in getting a second job and letting your first employer know about it if both of you agree beforehand. But if your job specifically states in the contract that you cannot work for a competitor while being employed, then it’s off limits to find a second job in the same field.

You only pay NHI at one place of employment i.e there is no double/triple NHI payments if you work for more than one company. So if you start working for a second company, then the 2nd company need not pay your NHI premuims, they only need to pay for Labor insurance.

there was a thread in the last year or 2 where the government (labor?) snitched on people and caused trouble. can’t remember the story or the title, but seems somewhat relevant here.

stay legal. keep quiet. good base advice until further details are learned.

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if open work rights, don’t you pay for nhi yourself? I have only ever paid nhi myself, not so unlike an electricity or phone bill (with open work rights).

if it were normal for the employer to pay it, surely that would be a red flag for them knowing you had a second job. but I thought normally one paid it themself on open work permits unlike with work permits perhaps. ?

No, you only pay yourself if you aren’t employed or I’m guessing maybe self employed? I have open work rights and my, my wife’s and my daughters NHI is all through my company.

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As a side note, when your NHI is through your company you pay a small portion of it yourself, and the total amount paid is based on salary, because of this I end up paying more for my wife and daughter than if they were just paying the regular rate for people not employed. Can’t help it though because apparently it’s the law that my wife and daughter must be on my company’s NHI. End up paying about $500 more per person, so losing about $1000 a month more.

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yes, but thats because NHI is a progressive tax , not really an insurance :slight_smile:
overall it is a good tax, that enables healthcare to most of the people, so i accept the tradeoff of paying mere than the unemployed.

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cheers, thanks for clarifying.

I am self employed and the bill always comes in the mail. take it to some shop and pay.

I wonder, if you work for a company, your family (assuming they don’t work for the same company) can be taken off and paid separately. seems plausible. especially if your better half works for another company, would decouple from yours. perhaps useful for greater insurance, but basic nhi probably makes no difference on care, just expense. or is that way off?

Isn’t this a huge red flag for your second employer if they’re like “hmm, how come we don’t have to pay NHI for X”.

Any way around this?

The twist is that you aren’t really teaching and the student is not the nephew but the wife. You are now the family’s plummer.

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There is no other way around this…Besides, anyone taking on a second job will not be able to perform there full time (i.e 8 hours [9 to 5 office job]) and can only be there on a part time basis and the 2nd employer will somehow deduce that this person already has another job. There might be an exception to this rule if one teaches English.

Also, if one decides to remain silent about his/her NHI status and their 2nd employer makes their NHI payment, after a mth or 2, you will receive a letter from NHI stating that you have been making double payments and will inform you and your 2nd employer to stop making said payments. So, in the end, the 2nd employer will come to know about your first job.

This happened to me recently…I have a full time office job (Mon~Fri) where my Employer deducts my NHI premiums from my salary and I also work part time on Weekends…My part time employer wanted to add me to their NHI (she thought it would be illegal if she didn’t do so even though I assured her she didn’t need to)…after 2 mths, I got a letter from NHI stating that I’m making double payments and asked me to cancel NHI payments from one employer.

Here’s the letter I got from NHI…it basically says “This is a reminder that you’ve been making double payments, you fool!! In order to ease the burden on your Employers and the NHI, please choose only one employer that best suits your needs and remove yourself from the other”


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Yikes, this is a bit of a headache for me, but your experience really helped, thanks! How did your employer react?

Why not? If you’re remote and WFH, you can do 3-4-5 jobs during your 9 to 5, as long as no one finds out and everyone’s happy with performance.

Ahhh…I did not take into account the WFH option here…I assumed the OP has to personally be in the place of employment at both places.

My weekend job was at my brother’s restaurant and of course, he already knows that I have a full time job and my Full Time Employer doesn’t care what I do on my weekends :laughing:

My bad, I just found this thread and wanted some more insight for my own setup.

I decided it was going to be almost impossible to hide getting a second job because of NHI. Instead I started taking on freelance clients, going well so far, made an extra 100k in about two months. Since I’m not a registered business right now, not sure how this income should be categorized come tax reporting next May. I’ll probably just give the tax people a list of all the non standard income I’ve earned and let them figure it out.

This is not uncommon: https://overemployed.com/

(and also a philosophy I subscribe to :slight_smile: )

I don’t think it’s really a red flag if you get a job or even a second job and tell the employer that you don’t need NHI. I know a few Taiwanese people who don’t get their insurance through their job and their job never questioned it. From what I know they are a member of some type of union/club and they get NHI through there. My wife’s uncle is part of a music union and got my wife insurance through it. Then she got a job and told the boss she didn’t need NHI and they didn’t question her as to why. They still pay her labor insurance though. I’m not sure if there is really any benefit to getting NHI through this way rather than your employer.

I’m currently evaluating this option, which I might very well go for. Thanks for proving to me it’s possible.