So. This did get sorted out. Pay day was on the 10th and I didn’t get anything close to what I expected. They immediately realized I didn’t get paid the 8 days leave for the death of a parent and came back with that money the next day.
But they divided the days by 30 and only paid me for the days I started back at work until the end of the month. By Friday, it looked like they realized their mistake. I was ready to head into the weekend paying off my bills. No such luck. Before I go on, realize I know this was an innocent mistake. I would not say that if it happened at a million other schools I worked at, but this seemed to be an honest mistake. The person doing payroll is a teacher, not accountant. Want to write this so others know what to do.
So before I talked to them again I did my homework. Knew someone that works on payroll at a bigger company. I asked about it. She told me there are two ways to do salary: one is divide it by the number of days in the month and the other by the paid working days.
Since my school figures in 30 days to my pay, they also owe me for all the weekend days. (There were also 2 national holidays they did not pay me for). Note what I am about to say is not for part time workers or salary workers necessarily (maybe your circumstances are different. I don’t have experience on this). I am thinking full time employees.
So to make it easier, let’s say you make 30,000 a month (I make more. Just so you can see the math). You missed the whole month and came back to work on the 26th (just to mirror my situation). To anyone looking at this in the future, open your phone’s/computer’s calendar to April, 2022.
It is 30,000 / 30 days = 1000 pay per day.
They have to pay you for:
Weekends: 2, 3, 9, 10, 16, 17, 23, 24, 30
National holidays: 4, 5
The days actually worked: 26, 27, 28, 29
So they owe you for 15 days of work. (I got paid for 5 on my original pay). At 1000 per day, your pay should be 15,000 for that month if you worked from the 26-29.
In my case, I also got paid an extra 8 days because of my father’s funeral. So if there is a special case like a wedding, birth of a child, or funeral, look up what they owe you. These are all somewhere in the labor standards act.
So what do you do if you did not get paid properly?
In my case, panic. Haha. But that is because I just came back from a trip I already could not afford, spent a ton of money on hotels and Uber eats (the food at my hotel was way sub-par) and had a drained bank account. But once you are ready to calm down a bit and get on it:
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Know how they figured out your pay. The more you understand how they did it, the more you can figure out how to recalculate the numbers. The key is whether they divide your pay by working days+public holidays or divide it by the number of days in a month (note: some might always divide by a fixed amount like 30 or 30.4 or something else. That small amount is not worth fighting over).
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Run the numbers yourself. If they divide by days per month, make sure to include weekends and public holidays. If you are on salary, you get those, too. (Note: you won’t get weekends included if it is divided up by working days + holidays).
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Be careful how you word things when you write to your boss. Stick to facts and not emotion. I slipped up early and let emotion take over in this one in my initial reactions, but smoothed that over. But when I had the numbers, I stuck to the facts.
A few facts for you:
—if you divide it up right according to how they do the salary, it will be hard to mess up. So you probably have the right number.
—I don’t remember the exact amount, but the fine for not paying the salary in a timely manner is somewhere between roughly 20,000-100,000. (Will use this later).
—You can always seek arbitration for this. And the labor bureau, from experience of most, side with the employee who really has his stuff in order.
So I sent a LINE message to the owner of the school and the person doing payroll. And here is the key: you want this pay situation handled as quickly as possible. They don’t want the hassle of arbitration and a possible fine if they are wrong. And you can provide them a way to check this themselves.
So I basically wrote a message saying it has been a week since I got paid and there is still an issue. Since you said we divided my pay by 30 days for April, here are the days I think I am owed for and what my pay should be. (I did that all with just the math).
I then said all the stuff about how stressful it is and I still want to stay focused on my job, but it is hard with this not resolved. (I wanted them to know it is impacting my work, which is really was, but I am still working my best).
This is the kicker: I also mentioned I don’t want the labor bureau involved. I did some checking of the way to divide this pay, but my Chinese is limited. If they want to call and check, they can call 1955 and talk to a consultant.
Keep the tone as “this is nothing personal. Just according to Taiwan law, this is how much I budgeted on. And if I am owed it, I need it.”
I did point out that the fine for not paying is somewhere between 20,000 and 100,000. And I am asking for the lower end. Not as a threat. Do not make it sound like you are threatening them (and no not threaten them). Just to let them know that if there is a disagreement you will reach out to the labor bureau and seek mediation.
In my case, they called the labor department themselves this evening. I get the rest of my pay tomorrow.
For your message:
—be direct.
—be correct. (Did not intend to rhyme that. This won’t be a Dr. Seuss poem)
—lay out the math.
—ask them to call and verify. 1955 has consultation services, but mostly in Chinese).
—remind them that you don’t want to involve the labor department. This says you will if you have to.
—hope they come through.
I will say this again: I think this was an honest mistake on the part of my school. They are not the type of people to rip off anyone. And they handled it perfectly, if slower than I hoped. 
Now I am ready to head to work tomorrow so I can focus on the classroom and kids. Unless I spend all night watching Amber Heard get destroyed again.
He was constantly livid when reviewing his pay stubs.
And by the original poster, even.
is for the thank you. 