Global benefits insights: October 2025

A summary of the latest employee benefits changes from around the world | 6 minute read

Taiwan

Amends parental leave¹

Starting from 1st January 2026, Taiwan are introducing a day-based parental leave system.

This system provides more flexibility from the current approach and will allow parents to take parental leave until the child is 3 years old, with each period being a minimum of 6 months.

The new scheme also allows parents to take leave by the day, retaining 80% of their regular salary. Parents can take up to 60 days in total in day-based leave per child. Employees must give 5 days’ notice, except in emergencies like a child’s illness or childcare closure, when only 1 day’s notice is required.

For small and micro enterprises (less than 30 employees), the government will provide a subsidy of TWD 1,000 per employee per day of leave taken.

This new leave is provided in addition to the existing 7-day family leave entitlement, which is allocated from the 14 days of personal leave available to employees.

Belgium

Introduces a salary ceiling on social security contributions²

A law passed on 29th July, effective from 1st July 2025 introduces a quarterly cap on employer social security contributions.

For the remainder of 2025, employers will only pay social security contributions on an employee’s salary up to a quarterly cap of EUR 85,000.

From 2027, it is expected this cap will be reduced to EUR 67,500 per quarter. The contribution only applies to the 24.92% basic employer contribution. All other contributions remain uncapped.

Increases meal voucher value limit³

Effective from 1st January 2026, the maximum meal voucher limit will increase from EUR 8.00 per day.

Under the Arizona Agreement, the new maximum voucher limit will be EUR 10.00 per working day. The tax deductibility remains at EUR 2.00. If an employer wishes to benefit from an additional EUR 2.00 saving, they must increase the voucher limit and the increase must exceed the previous EUR 8.00 per day limit.

For example, going from EUR 6.00 to EUR 8.00 would not benefit from an increase, but an increase from EUR 7.00 to EUR 9.00 would benefit from the tax saving.

The maximum limit may be raised to EUR 12.00 per day in 2027, but this has not yet been confirmed.
Employers are not required to offer the full maximum value.

South Africa

Amends parental leave policy^{4, 5}

Effective immediately, South Africa is updating parental leave provision to promote fairness.

On 3rd October 2025, the Constitutional Court confirmed it found several provisions within the Basic Conditions of Employment Act 1997 discriminated against different categories of parents and children.

Parental leave provision was amended to the following:

Single parents are now entitled to 4 consecutive months’ parental leave.
Where only one of the parents is employed, this parent is entitled to 4 consecutive months’ parental leave.

If both parents are employed,

both parents are entitled to share the 4 months and 10 days of parental leave. Parental leave includes the 4 weeks that a female employee is allowed to take before the expected date of birth and the 6 weeks after birth during which work is not permitted. The remaining parental leave can be shared between both parents.
both parents must agree on how to divide the parental leave and how to take it – whether concurrently, consecutively or partly concurrently or partly consecutively.
if the parents cannot agree on dividing the remaining parental leave, it will be split as evenly as possible, so each receives about half of the 4 months and 10 days from the child's birth.

Adoption and commissioning parental leave will now also be the same provision as parental leave.

Ireland

Increases Pay-Related Social Insurance contributions⁶

From 1st October 2025, Class A PRSI contributions rates will increase for both employees and employers in Ireland.

Employer contributions increase from 8.9% to 9% for employees earning less than EUR 528.00 per week, and from 11.15% to 11.25% for those earning above EUR 527.00 per week.

Employee contribution increases from 4.1% to 4.2%. Further 0.15% increases will apply in 2026 and 2027, followed by a 0.2% increase in 2028.

Minimum wage increase from 1st January 2026⁷

From January 2026, the hourly minimum wage will increase from EUR 13.50 to EUR 14.15.

South Korea

Increases National Pension Service Contribution⁸

Starting 1 January 2026, employee and employer NPS contributions will rise annually through 2033.

Currently the NPS contributions are 9%; split 50/50 between the employee and employer. From January 2026, this will increase by 0.5% per annum in the following increments:

Effective date of change	New total contribution rate	New employer contribution rate	New employee contribution rate
1st January 2026	9.50%	4.75%	4.75%
1st January 2027	10.00%	5.00%	5.00%
1st January 2028	10.50%	5.25%	5.25%
1st January 2029	11.00%	5.50%	5.50%
1st January 2030	11.50%	5.75%	5.75%
1st January 2031	12.00%	6.00%	6.00%
1st January 2032	12.50%	6.25%	6.25%
1st January 2033	13.00%	6.50%	6.50%

NFP’s guide to international benefits

Whether you’re a new start-up, a growing enterprise or an established international organisation, operating globally comes with its own set of unique challenges; from navigating legal and tax legislation to understanding local cultures, creating compliant and competitive benefits packages can be complex.

Our team of experienced international employee benefits consultants have written this guide to help you:

Achieve consistency in your international benefits strategy
Identify benefits to implement in each of your locations
Choose the right international benefits providers
Manage your international benefits efficiently
Monitor your strategy’s success

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If you’d like to explore how these legislation changes could affect your organisation, and what practical steps you can take to protect and support your people - speak to us today.

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This insights article is not intended to address any specific situation or to provide legal, regulatory, financial, or other advice. While care has been taken in the production of this article, NFP does not warrant, represent or guarantee the accuracy, adequacy, completeness or fitness for any purpose of the article or any part of it and can accept no liability for any loss incurred in any way by any person who may rely on it. Any recipient shall be responsible for the use to which it puts this article. This article has been compiled using information available to us up to its date of publication.

NFP contributors

Emma Bryant
International Technical Specialist, Employee Benefits

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