New employer seems reluctant regarding health insurance

Yesterday I received my first wage from my new employer. I inquired as to whether or not they had deducted NHI contributions. My boss said no and she couldn’t give me a straight answer. First she said my other school should pay it, then it was because I am not full-time (more on that in a minute), then when I asked if they expect me to deal with it myself she replied that it might be a good idea.

My work permit only arrived last week, so we’re now in the process of applying for the ARC. As far as I’m aware, the company who sponsors the ARC is the one that splits the cost with me, am I correct?

Although they are supplying the ARC I only work 9.5 hours per week. I wonder if they are reluctant to make the contribution but as I understand it it’s their obligation by law.

My other job is somewhere that I help out twice a week unpaid, the less said about that the better.

Should I point out that they are required by law to register me, or is there a way I can do this on my own without bringing attention to myself? Would going it alone be more expensive?

Cheers :slight_smile:

Hi Newbie!
Welcome to Taiwan, It’s time to wake up now.
Are they in the process of getting your an ARC?
If so, then as far as I know, what you are doing right now is illegal. …Sorry, was illegal before the work-permit arrived.

You’ll figure it out. If you are planing on having a retirement later on, better leave now.

As I understand it, you should be able to go to the ministry of health office yourself and register that you will pay the premiums along with showing them your arc. It would be more expensive since the company is not paying any of it, the premiums would be strictly on you. You can try pressing your boss but they might just feel ypur not worth the trouble and goodbye.

If you dont register , as i remember it, there is a fine and backpremiums due when they catch on

BY law they are supposed to give you a minimun of 14hrs / week. I’n reality a lot of schools don’t/can’t do this so if they are reluctant to pay your NHI premiums. I worked previously for a school that only offered me 7hrs/wk, they provided my health Insurance but deducted the costs from my wages. That was our agreement, though technically all aspects of that arangement were illegal. They should at least pay your premiums for you even if you are footing the bill. If you can’t get a satisfactory arrangement from them I would be quietly looking for another job. It’s easy to jump ship once you already have an ARC.

Bubbagump, have you found any more info on this. Your question was not really answered here. Is the company providing your ARC legally responsible for paying a portion of your NHI?

I had another question in mind which led me to this thread. If an employee has a wife and kids, should the ARC provider also pay a portion of the NHI for other family members?

I’m on an APRC, and my company added my husband to my NHI stuff. My husband’s ARC is dependent on mine, so I’m sure what would happen if he were on his own work or school sponsored one. Before they added him, I paid about $1000 a month for my part, and after they added him, it went up to about $2000. So I assume they’re making equal contributions for the both of us. To set it up, after we got his ARC, I just brought it in to my office with his NHI card (he had one from before…wasn’t new to the system). HR took care of everything.

For the OP - Which school is your ARC sponsoring school?

The sponsoring school has to pay for your NHI. For teachers your minimum monthly wage has to be 33.3K/mo (or something like that) and school pays X while deducting Y (much less than X) from your paycheck and also sending that to NHI.

A secondary school is supposed to contribute 2% (of your salary) and deduct an additional 2% which goes to NHI. I would imagine that this is abused frequently but the important part is that the primary school is paying for NHI.

Regarding Navillus’s question. The employer’s contribution to NHI does not increase if the employee has dependents. This would lead to substantial discrimination towards hiring employees with children. The employee’s contribution doubles with each additional dependent. The bottom of this link shows the payment chart. tealit.com/article_categorie … -insurance

It’s a cram school that sponsors my ARC.

It’s a franchise of a big chain, and the ‘Director’ is basically someone who sees the venture as a cash cow, not a place for children to learn English. She suggested I pay NHI myself, and this falls in line with other money saving schemes.

I haven’t looked into it any further because I’m waiting to collect my new ARC. When I do that I’ll head to HI’s head office. I know the school should pay a portion of my NHI but two teachers were mysteriously let go in the past two weeks. I’m concerned about rocking the boat.

This is ridiculous. Rock the boat. Or get out of this boat.

I’m attempting to maneuver myself into a better, non cram school environment in Taiwan. If it works out I will rock the boat simply to see what happens. If it doesn’t work out I’ll be leaving Taiwan anyway - I do love the place but cram school is not a long term option for a teaching career - so I will still call her on it.

I just need to bide my time for a few more weeks.