Today’s theme is “the wage ledger.” When the Labor Standards Inspection Office conducts an investigation, some companies have trouble providing the wage ledger quickly. In recent years, many companies use payroll calculation systems or applications. It is crucial to provide or keep data in a proper format.
Legal rules and obligations
Article 108 of the Labor Standards Act stipulates that “an employer must prepare a wage lodger for each workplace.” A circular notice, dated March 10, 2025, provides specific rules. Following are the main points.
1. Companies must have a system to display the wage ledger for each workplace and print it out whenever necessary.
2. Companies must be prepared to show the data and submit a copy at the time of labor standards inspectors’ investigation.
These rules indicate that just keeping data in the system is inadequate. Companies must be able to make an output for each workplace as needed.
Preparing of data for each workplace
Even if the headquarters processes payrolls for the entire company, factories or branches with chief administrators are considered as individual workplaces. If such a company states that the wage ledger is only kept by the headquarters at the time of inspection, the company may become subject to correction instruction.
Checklist : Failure cases and key points for making improvements
✔ Printing out of data at each workplace
Some companies received corrective instruction after answering “We can only print out data in the headquarters.”
👉Establish a system to allow data output at factories and branches and prepare a manual.
✔ Include all legally required items in the wage ledger
“Number of attendance days” or “overtime work hours” were not stated in wage records.
👉 Check the items required in Article 54 of the Ordinance for Enforcement of the Labor Standards Act (name, working days, overtime working hours, etc.)
Information management
The wage ledger should be stored and handled with caution, since it contains information about workers’ salaries. Meanwhile, it is important that it can be extracted easily in the case of inspection. Be sure that the wage ledger can be taken out quickly without keeping printed materials.
Prepare for a sudden inspection
The Labor Standards Inspection Office’s inspection is often conducted without a prior notice. Not to panic in the case of a sudden visit, It is helpful to make an output of wage ledger from the payroll calculation system to see the data is correct as a trial.
Taking this opportunity, please check the wage ledger can be prepared smoothly.
