Flexibility Without Security?Comparing Germany’s Mini-Job Regime and Taiwan’s Protection of Part-Time Workers

Abstract

Low-hours employment poses a recurring institutional problem: legal systems must accommodate entry-level, care-compatible and supplementary work without allowing reduced hours to become reduced protection. This article examines that problem through a functional comparative socio-legal analysis of Germany’s earnings-limit Mini-Job and Taiwan’s protection of part-time employees. It analyses statutes, administrative materials, descriptive labor-market data current to 5 August 2026, and peer-reviewed scholarship. Germany combines a legally visible earnings category and centralized registration with differentiated social-insurance treatment. Taiwan generally applies ordinary labor and social-protection legislation, supplemented by non-binding administrative Guidelines, but divides enrolment and contribution administration among several programs. The article develops an operational “regulatory triangle”: substantive employment equality, social-protection continuity and administrative legibility. The last refers to the capacity to classify, register, coordinate, and verify small employment relationships at proportionate cost, and is distinct from the burdens experienced by individuals. The comparison identifies contrasting configurations, not causal effects. Germany performs strongly on registration and formal labor-law parity, but Mini-Jobs do not independently provide complete health, long-term care, or unemployment protection and are associated with gendered secondary-earner patterns. Taiwan avoids a general statutory exclusion from employment rights, yet multiple enrolment rules and minimum assessment bases can make genuine micro-employment costly to administer. The article connects labor-law equality, welfare continuity, and compliance infrastructure within a single framework, while distinguishing functional similarity from legal equivalence. For Taiwan, selective institutional learning means combining unified registration and progressive contributions with first-hour accident protection, portable pension rights and anti-fragmentation safeguards.

Zenodo Doi:-10.5281/zenodo.22027445

Keywords

Mini-Job, part-time employment, labor-market dualization, social insurance, gender inequality, regulatory compliance, Germany, Taiwan