II. Impact of COVID-19 pay gap, family caregiving responsibilities before the pandemic were primarily borne by women.2 Women are also the main applicants for family care leave provided by the government.3 Since employers are not mandated to give workers paid family care leave, it is difficult for women to manage caregiving and work at the same time. The majority of care services workers are women, who thus bear a higher risk of infection.4 Women are more likely to experience the impact of COVID than men.5 The government has not yet comprehensively collected and 2 According to the 2016 Survey on Women’s Marriage, Childbirth and Employment by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS), Executive Yuan, women over 15 years old who have a spouse/partner (including cohabitant) spend a daily average of 3.81 hours giving unpaid care, and their husbands (or cohabitants) spend 1.13 hours. Among these hours, women spend 1.54 hours caring for children, the elderly, and other family members, and 2.19 hours doing household chores. 3 Family care leave: Granted to workers who have the need to take care of children, people with disabilities, or family members who cannot take care of themselves, and who apply to their employers for such leave. As this is a new complementary measure to respond to suspension of school classes due to COVID-19, and not part of the labor regulations, it is not mandatory for employers to offer paid leave. The Employment Management Equality and Workplace Equality Survey conducted by the Ministry of Labor (MOL) indicates that 6.2% of female employees have applied for family care leave, compared to 2.4% of male employees. 4 Definition by the Department of Gender Equality: From 2020, the definition of care services personnel was expanded to include home-based, community-based, residential, and integrated long-term care institutions established under the Long-Term Care Services Act, as well as welfare institutions for the elderly, nursing homes, and institutions for people with disabilities established under other laws. According to the 2018 Analysis of Workforce Structure, Workplace Environmental Problems and Research on Countermeasures in the Long-Term Care Industry by the Institute of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health, MOL, 8% of caregivers are women, and most are middle-aged (45 to 54 years old). 5 Statistics from the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and the MOL indicate the following: (1) Impact on businesses, unpaid leave, and reduced working hours: Unpaid leave caused by COVID-19 is mostly seen in the wholesale, retail, warehousing, accommodation, catering, and tourism industries. In 2020, more than 65% of the 220,000 female-headed businesses in Taiwan were retail and food services; the turnover of the retail and food service sectors from February to April of that year dropped by more than NT$10 billion compared to the same ¯7¯