2. The Labor Standards Act provides for one month of severance pay for each year of service, with a pro-rata provision in there in case an employment termination does not come neatly at the employee's hiring anniversary. The Labor Pension Act provides a variety of other nice benefits for local employees (a portable pension system, among them) but only provides for a pension calculation of half a month's pay per year of service, with a cap of 6 months' pay. Taiwanese employees will automatically fall under the Labor Pension Act if they were hired after the law became effective on July 1, 2005 -- otherwise the main questions for pre-July 1, 2005 employees are whether the employee "opted-in" or not and, if so, when. If the employee did not opt-in, then we go back to the LSA calculation. If the employee did opt-in, then knowing the date helps for the pro-rata calculation of severance pay for the mix of LSA (1 month per year) and LPA (1/2 month per year) methods.