Taiwan does not give workers a single pot of paid sick days. It gives them two pots with very different rules — and the payroll cost sits in a third place entirely. Ordinary sick leave runs to 30 days a year at half salary. Hospitalisation leave runs to a full year inside any two-year window. Labor Insurance pays part of the bill, and the employer pays whatever the insurer does not.
That three-way split is where foreign employers get Taiwan wrong. They budget for “half pay” and then discover they are the ones topping up the shortfall, or they treat a cancer outpatient appointment as ordinary sick leave when the regulations say it belongs in the hospitalisation pool. This guide walks through both tiers, the wage rules, and the traps.
Key takeaways
- Taiwan’s sick leave rules live in the Regulations of Leave-Taking by Workers, issued under Article 43 of the Labor Standards Act — not in the Act itself.
- Non-hospitalised (ordinary) sick leave: under 30 days per year. Hospitalised sick leave: up to one year within any two-year period. The two combined still cannot exceed one year in two years.
- Ordinary sick leave up to 30 days a year is paid at 50% of salary. If the worker’s Labor Insurance benefit comes to less than 50%, the employer makes up the difference.
- Labor Insurance ordinary injury/sickness benefit starts on the fourth day of incapacity and pays 50% of the average monthly insured salary — for six months, or twelve if the worker had at least a year of coverage.
- Outpatient treatment for cancer (including carcinoma in situ) or threatened miscarriage counts against the hospitalisation pool, not the ordinary one.
- Once both pools are exhausted, the worker can take unpaid work suspension for up to one year.
- Occupational injury is a separate regime entirely — the employer pays full wages during treatment under Article 59 of the Labor Standards Act.
Where the rules actually live
Article 43 of the Labor Standards Act says only that workers may take leave for illness or personal reasons and that the central competent authority sets the details. Those details are the Regulations of Leave-Taking by Workers, a ministerial regulation from the Ministry of Labor.
If you are drafting a Taiwan handbook and quoting section numbers from the Labor Standards Act for sick leave, you are quoting the wrong instrument. The operative provisions are Articles 4, 5 and 6 of the Regulations.
The two-tier entitlement
Article 4 of the Regulations splits ordinary injury and sickness leave — 普通傷病假 — into two categories with separate ceilings:
| Category | Ceiling |
|---|---|
| Non-hospitalised (outpatient) | Under 30 days in one year |
| Hospitalised | Not exceeding one year within two years |
| Both combined | Not exceeding one year within two years |
Read the third row carefully. The one-year hospitalisation ceiling is not additive on top of the 30 outpatient days — it is the overall cap. A worker who has used 30 outpatient days and then spends eleven months in and out of hospital is at the limit, not at eleven months plus 30 days.
The two-year window is a rolling reference period, not a calendar-year reset. Payroll systems that zero out sick leave every 1 January will over-grant hospitalisation leave to a worker whose illness straddles a year end.
The cancer and pregnancy exception
Article 4 pulls two categories of outpatient treatment into the hospitalisation pool: treatment for cancer, including carcinoma in situ, and treatment for threatened miscarriage, where a physician has made the diagnosis.
This matters more than it looks. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are usually delivered as outpatient appointments. Booking them against the 30-day ordinary pool exhausts a cancer patient’s entitlement in about six weeks; booking them correctly against the hospitalisation pool gives them the full one-year runway the regulation intends.
What the employer pays
The wage rule sits in the same article, and it is narrower than most handbooks state:
Where ordinary sick leave does not exceed thirty days in one year, fifty percent of salary shall be paid. Where the Labor Insurance payment does not reach fifty percent of salary, the employer shall make up the difference.
Three consequences follow.
First, the 50% obligation is capped at 30 days a year. Beyond that, the Regulations impose no wage obligation on the employer. Hospitalisation leave past the 30-day mark is unpaid by the employer, though Labor Insurance benefit continues.
Second, the employer is the backstop, not the insurer. If Labor Insurance pays a worker less than half their actual salary — which is common where the insured salary bracket sits below real pay — the employer writes the cheque for the gap. Budgeting “half pay, and the government covers it” understates the cost.
Third, “salary” here means the worker’s own wage, not the insured salary. The comparison is between what Labor Insurance actually pays and 50% of what the worker actually earns.
How Labor Insurance fits in
The Labor Insurance Act provides an ordinary injury or sickness benefit that runs alongside, not instead of, the employer’s obligation:
| Feature | Rule |
|---|---|
| Waiting period | Benefit starts from the fourth day of incapacity for work |
| Rate | 50% of the average monthly insured salary |
| Maximum duration | 6 months, extended to 12 months if the worker had at least one year of insurance coverage before the illness |
| Condition | The worker must be unable to work and not receiving wages |
That last condition is the one that trips up employers who pay full salary as a goodwill gesture. A worker receiving full wages is generally not receiving the Labor Insurance benefit — so a well-meaning top-up policy can quietly cost the employer the entire replacement, not just the gap.
The three-day waiting period also means a short absence — a two-day flu — produces no insurance benefit at all. The employer’s 50% obligation still applies from day one.
When both pools run out
Article 5 of the Regulations covers what happens next. A worker whose ordinary sick leave exceeds the Article 4 limits is entitled to work suspension without pay for a maximum of one year. This is a right, not an employer concession, and it is the practical alternative to termination in a long-illness case.
Occupational injury is handled separately. Article 6 gives workers occupational sickness leave for the whole period of medical treatment or recuperation, and Article 59 of the Labor Standards Act requires the employer to pay full wages during that treatment period. Article 13 of the Act bars termination during it. Never route a work-related injury through the ordinary sick leave pool — the entitlement, the pay rate and the job protection are all different.
How Taiwan compares in the region
Taiwan’s structure is closer to Singapore’s than to Japan’s or Korea’s. Both Taiwan and Singapore run a two-tier outpatient/hospitalisation model with a separate, larger hospitalisation ceiling — see our guide to sick leave entitlement in Singapore for the section 89 version. Where they diverge is pay: Singapore pays outpatient sick leave at the full gross rate, while Taiwan pays half.
Japan has no statutory paid sick leave at all and leans on the health insurance injury and sickness allowance, as covered in our Japan sick leave guide. For how the same entitlement is built on the other side of the Taiwan Strait’s talent market, our Hong Kong sick leave guide sets out the sickness-day accrual model.
For Taiwan’s other main statutory entitlement, see our guide to annual leave entitlement in Taiwan.
Common employer mistakes
1. Resetting the hospitalisation clock every January
The 30-day ordinary pool is annual. The one-year hospitalisation ceiling is measured across two years. Applying a calendar-year reset to both is the single most common configuration error in Taiwan payroll systems.
2. Treating the 50% as fully insured
Labor Insurance pays 50% of the insured salary, which is banded and capped. Half of a worker’s actual salary is often more. The gap is the employer’s, and it grows with seniority.
3. Booking cancer outpatient visits as ordinary sick leave
Article 4 puts cancer and threatened-miscarriage outpatient treatment in the hospitalisation category. Misclassifying it burns through a seriously ill worker’s 30-day pool and sets up a dispute the employer will lose.
4. Paying full salary during a long absence without checking the insurance effect
A worker who is receiving wages is generally not incapacitated-and-unpaid for Labor Insurance purposes. Generous top-ups need to be designed around the benefit, not on top of it.
5. Running occupational injury through the sick leave pool
Occupational injury attracts full wages under Article 59 of the Labor Standards Act and job protection under Article 13. Ordinary sick leave attracts neither.
Frequently asked questions
How many sick days do employees get in Taiwan?
Under 30 days of non-hospitalised sick leave per year, and up to one year of hospitalised sick leave within any two-year period. The two combined cannot exceed one year within two years.
Is sick leave paid in Taiwan?
Partly. Ordinary sick leave up to 30 days a year is paid at 50% of salary. If the worker’s Labor Insurance benefit falls short of that 50%, the employer pays the difference. Beyond 30 days a year, the employer has no statutory wage obligation.
When does Labor Insurance start paying sick leave benefit?
From the fourth day of incapacity for work, at 50% of the average monthly insured salary, for up to six months — or up to twelve months where the worker had at least one year of insurance coverage before the illness began.
Does chemotherapy count as hospitalisation leave in Taiwan?
Yes. Outpatient treatment for cancer, including carcinoma in situ, is included in hospitalised sick leave under Article 4 of the Regulations of Leave-Taking by Workers, as is outpatient treatment for threatened miscarriage.
What happens when an employee exhausts their sick leave in Taiwan?
Article 5 of the Regulations entitles them to unpaid work suspension for up to one year. Employers may also allow the balance to be taken as personal leave or special (annual) leave by agreement.
Is a medical certificate required?
Article 10 requires the worker to state the reason and duration of leave in advance, orally or in writing, and the employer may require supporting documentary evidence. In practice that means a physician’s certificate for anything beyond a short absence.
Does sick leave carry over or get paid out in Taiwan?
No. Sick leave is a contingent entitlement, not an accrued balance. Unused days are not carried forward and are not paid out on termination.
Putting it into practice
If you employ people in Taiwan, five configuration checks cover most of the risk:
- Track ordinary and hospitalised sick leave as separate balances, with the combined one-year-in-two-years cap enforced across both.
- Set the hospitalisation window as a rolling two-year period, not a calendar year.
- Build the top-up calculation into payroll: compare the actual Labor Insurance benefit against 50% of the worker’s real salary and pay the gap, for the first 30 days each year.
- Add a classification rule so cancer and threatened-miscarriage outpatient treatment is booked against the hospitalisation pool.
- Keep occupational injury on a separate leave type with full-wage payment under Article 59 and a termination block under Article 13.
Two pools, a rolling window, and a top-up that depends on a number the insurer calculates — Taiwan is a case where manual spreadsheets fail quietly. A leave system that models both balances separately and holds the two-year reference period will tell you the right answer in month eleven of a long illness, which is exactly when getting it wrong becomes expensive.
Sources
- Regulations of Leave-Taking by Workers — Laws & Regulations Database of the Republic of China (Taiwan) (primary source)
- Labor Standards Act — Laws & Regulations Database of the Republic of China (Taiwan)
- Labor Insurance Act — Laws & Regulations Database of the Republic of China (Taiwan)
- Ministry of Labor — Labor Laws and Regulations Retrieving System
Last updated: 22 July 2026. This article is general guidance, not legal advice. For long-illness cases, termination risk, or occupational injury classification, consult a Taiwan-qualified employment lawyer.