20 months’ pay in year-end bonus for staff at Taiwan shipping giant Evergreen

A TAIWANESE company that is known for giving employees big bonuses has done it yet again.

Shipping giant Evergreen announced on Dec 31 that its employees would get an end-year bonus averaging 20 months of their salary, according to Taiwanese media outlets.

Workers will also receive an additional three-month bonus, reported Taiwan News.

In 2023, local media outlets put the average salary at the company at around NT$60,000 (S$2,500). The Straits Times previously reported that wages in Taiwan have remained practically frozen for years.

Based on that average salary, this means that employees would get about S$50,000 for their year-end bonus.

Aside from being one of the world’s biggest ocean carriers, Evergreen has come to be known for its generous bonuses.

The company gave up to 40 months’ pay in its year-end bonus in 2021, and surpassed that the following year, with workers getting a bonus of up to 52 months of salary.

For the first three quarters of 2024, the company reported a net profit after tax of NT$108.754 billion – a 239.4 per cent increase from 2023, reported news outlets Taiwan News and NOWNews.

Evergreen’s profits are set to continue rising in 2025, driven by global factors such as the Red Sea crisis, which began in October 2023, when the Yemen-based Houthi militant group started launching missiles at commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea to protest the Israel-Gaza war.

This has prompted companies to ditch shipping routes in the Red Sea – the fastest maritime path between Asia and Europe – and instead take longer, but safer routes. Lengthier journeys have caused supply chain disruptions, which bump up existing freight rates. THE STRAITS TIMES