A survey of more than 11,000 companies showed Thursday nearly four out of every 10 business corporations plan to raise wages for their regular workers in fiscal 2011 starting April 1, major credit research agency Teikoku Databank Ltd. said Thursday.
Wages
Keidanren urges spring raises
The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) has endorsed a committee report recommending that employers grant regular pay raises to employees at this spring’s wage talks in view of improving corporate earnings.
The upcoming negotiations between labor and management will focus on the maintenance of regular wage hikes, according to the report by Keidanren’s Committee on Management and Labor Policy.
Keidanren OKs regular wage hikes in ‘shunto’ talks
The Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) has no plans this year to pressure employers to stop making regular pay hikes during this spring’s labor-management wage talks because business conditions have improved in recent months, a final draft of the federation’s negotiating policy report showed Thursday.
“Most companies hold wage talks with the focus on maintaining regular pay hikes,” the nation’s top business lobby said in the report, indicating its willingness to reverse its stance on the matter.
In its report for last year’s “shunto” wage negotiations, Keidanren said it would consider encouraging companies to freeze regular wage hikes while the economy attempts to recover. This year it is softening its stance because earnings, particularly at big companies, have improved.
Ginza hostesses sue upscale club over unpaid wages
The former hostesses, aged in their 20s and 30s, are seeking a labor ruling in the Tokyo District Court, demanding a total of 4.38 million yen in compensation.
According to case documents, one of the former hostesses aged in her 30s joined the club in December 2009, agreeing to a daily wage of 46,000 yen. However her pay was docked by 10 to 100 percent for reasons such as late arrival, leaving early, and failing to reach targets for bringing in customers.
Between January and July this year, she was completely without pay, and had to rely on advance wage payments. With ballooning debts, she left her job at the end of August. The other two former hostesses were in similar positions, and the three joined the Kyabakura Union, a union for hostess club employees. They sought payment of unpaid wages, but negotiations broke down.
Commenting on the case, lawyer Ichiro Natsume said, “The work conditions of the former hostesses were controlled with time cards and their quotas were imposed by the club. Their treatment constitutes a violation of the Labor Standards Law.”
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20101112p2a00m0na012000c.html
Winter bonuses to inch higher: survey
Private firms with five or more employees are likely to pay their workers an average bonus of 388,000 yen this winter, a 2 percent increase from last year, a survey by Mizuho Securities Co. has found.
According to the study results released on Nov. 2, the estimated average bonus payment at such companies marks the first rise in two years, reflecting a recovery in corporate earnings. The brokerage house attributes the small scale of the increase to growing uncertainty over the economy mainly due to the high yen.
The survey also predicts that the number of people who will receive a bonus will rise 1 percent from last winter to 36.9 million, while the grand total of bonuses paid will reach 14.31 trillion yen, a 3 percent jump. The modest gains point to a recovery in the manufacturing industry, where exports to developing nations have grown, and a weakening drive to cut labor costs.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20101103p2a00m0na010000c.html
Kanpai! Summer Bonuses Up
The size of traditional summer bonuses rose for the first time in four years, according to preliminary data released by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry on Monday. Granted the average rise was 1.1% from the previous year to 367,178 yen, but heck, a bigger bonus is a bigger deal.
Workers in the mining and quarrying industries enjoyed the largest percent increase, rising 28% to 427,822 yen for businesses with at least five employees, according to the data. Other industries taking part in the mini-bonanza were the financial and insurance trade, up a cool 6.9% to 616,900 yen, and the wholesale and retail industry, with a 6.8% boost to 291,096.
http://blogs.wsj.com/japanrealtime/2010/11/02/kanpai-summer-bonuses-up/
Bonuses post 1st rise in 4 years
The average bonus for salaried workers this summer rose 1.1 percent from a year ago to 367,178 yen ($4,570), the first increase in four years, a labor ministry report said Monday.
Even though it may reflect improved performance among businesses, the slight upturn followed a sharp decline of 9.7 percent in summer 2009, meaning the wage situation remained tough.
The ministry’s monthly labor survey covered 33,000 businesses nationwide that employed five or more regular workers, including part-timers.
By industry, the largest earner was electricity, gas and water utilities, at 796,412 yen, down 3.2 percent year on year. The smallest was 72,670 yen for eating and drinking services. (No comparable figure is available for 2009 due to category changes).
The manufacturing sector, which employs a huge number of workers, posted a 3.9-percent rise to 452,212 yen. Among wholesalers and retailers, the gain came to 6.8 percent for a payout of 291,096 yen.
The largest drop was marked by the medical and welfare sector, down 5.6 percent to 280,224 yen.
Average hourly minimum wage to rise 17 yen to 730 yen
The nation’s weighted-average hourly minimum wage will rise by 17 yen from the previous year to 730 yen in the current fiscal year that started in April, the largest increase since fiscal 2002 when such wages were first calculated by the hour, the labor ministry said Friday.
The Central Minimum Wages Council, a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry advisory panel, recommended last month that the hourly wage be raised by between 10 and 30 yen. Local panels in 42 of the 47 prefectures in the country have since added between 1 and 6 yen to the council’s recommendations for their prefectures.
The minimum wage will be revised beginning in early October.
The lowest hourly minimum wage in the country will be 642 yen. Tottori, Shimane, Kochi and Kagoshima prefectures will join Saga, Nagasaki, Miyazaki and Okinawa, where the lowest-level minimum wages have prevailed since the revisions in fiscal 2009.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100911p2g00m0dm001000c.html
Household income gap hit record in 2008
Japan’s household income gap reached its highest level on record in 2008, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare has announced.
The so-called Gini coefficient — an indicator used to measure the inequality of income distribution — hit a record 0.5318 in 2008, up 0.0055 points from the previous survey in 2005.
The Gini coefficient ranges in value between 0 and 1, with 0 suggesting the perfect equality and 1 the maximal disparity in wealth distribution.
The average initial household income for 2008 was 4,451,000 yen, down 4.4 percent from the previous survey, while the average household income after the redistribution of national income was 5,179,000 yen — a drop of 5.8 percent from 2005.
Among working generations, the intra-generation income gap was relatively large among those aged 29 or younger, with the index remaining at 0.344 even after tax and social insurance payments.
The survey also revealed that the working generations failed to benefit from the income redistribution, with all households headed by those under 60 years paying more premiums than they received as welfare benefits.
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100902p2a00m0na014000c.html
Meager pay keeps ranks of instructors in doldrums
It may not be well-known, but [Japanese language instruction] has also been on the rise, with more people than ever trying to learn [the language]. But the number of Japanese who teach nonnative speakers isn’t growing, partly due to lack of interest among academic circles and the low pay at private language schools that derives in part from restrictions on management.
Some advocates stress the need to get the numbers up, as Japan is aging rapidly and reliance on an immigrant workforce is going to grow, thus it is important that newcomers be conversant in the language.
According to the education ministry, foreigners in the country studying Japanese increased to 170,858 in fiscal 2009 from 135,146 in fiscal 2003.
The number of Japanese-language teachers, excluding volunteers, dropped from 14,047 to 13,437 over the same period.
The trend is particularly noticeable at the nation’s universities. Foreign students studying Japanese at such institutions rose to 53,546 in fiscal 2009 from 34,880 four years earlier. Despite the jump, the number of teachers stayed almost unchanged, 4,250 last year versus 4,240 in fiscal 2003.
Satoshi Miyazaki, a professor at the graduate school of Japanese applied linguistics at Waseda University, said it is unfortunate teacher ranks are not growing. They should be boosted and put in positions of responsibility to enable a long-term commitment, otherwise, for example, universities would have a hard time improving their programs for international students.
The slow growth in Japanese teachers is shared by private language academies. Such commercial entities had 5,947 teachers and 50,479 students in fiscal 2003, compared with 5,959 teachers and 53,047 students in fiscal 2009.
“One reason for the lack of Japanese teachers is because it’s not a well-paid job,” said Nobuo Suzuki, who manages Arc Academy, a Japanese-language school with several branches in the Tokyo and Kansai areas.
Suzuki explained that about 80 percent of his teachers work part time and most are women.
The hourly wage is about ¥1,700 to ¥1,800 for new part-time teachers, who can only teach around three hours a week when they start out. Their hours can go up every three months and the part-time wage can rise to about ¥2,500.
An experienced teacher makes on average ¥7,000 to ¥8,000 a day.
Suzuki said full-time teachers with 10 years of experience earn about ¥4 million a year.
The meager pay means few young people, especially men, want to become Japanese-language teachers, people in the field say.
Yumiko Furukawa, a full-time teacher at Arc Academy who has been in the game for four years, said the high turnover rate — teachers last an average of only two years — is mainly because of wages.
“It is quite difficult to support an entire household by teaching Japanese, but there are many who love teaching Japanese, and I think Japanese-language teaching is supported by their passion,” said Furukawa, 41, whose husband also works so she doesn’t have to rely on just her wages.
[Makoto Murakami, head of the editorial department at the monthly magazine Gekkan Nihongo (Monthly Japanese)] Murakami likened Japanese-language teachers to nurses and caregivers.
“The number of people who will need caregivers will increase sharply, but the number of caregivers doesn’t grow because the job conditions aren’t very good,” and if the situation doesn’t change there won’t be enough Japanese teachers, even though the number of foreigners is likely to keep increasing, Murakami said.