labor

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Over 20% of youth in their 20s earn less than 1.5 million yen/year

Amid a wave of labor deregulation, the ratio of contingent workers among young workers rose threefold in the past ten years among those 20-24 years of age.

The FY 2006 White Paper on the Labor Economy released by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare on August 8 shows that the percentage of contingent workers out of all workers aged from 20-24 years increased to 31.8 percent in 2002 from 10.7 percent in 1992.

The percentage of workers in their 20s whose annual income is under 1.5 million yen also increased to 21.8 percent from 15.3 percent during the same period.

In contrast, those who received more than 5 million yen increased by 0.3 points to 3.2 percent, which shows that the gap is widening among young workers.

These figures confirm the adverse effect of the government "structural reform" policy since the 1990s, which includes labor deregulation that has lifted restrictions on unstable employment and made it easier for corporations to cut costs by replacing regular employees with contingent workers.

Pointing out that low-paid contingent workers tend to remain unmarried, and that this is a factor in the falling birthrate, the White Paper calls for a policy shift to encourage companies to hire more full-time workers in order to narrow the income gap.

However, the White Paper does not make a critical review of the policy of deregulating the labor market as part of the "structural reform" policy that has created so many contingent workers.

Although the White Paper says that the number of contingent workers is likely to continue to increase, it only calls for more job training to help young people develop skills. It fails to identify the need to have corporations fulfill their responsibility for creating decent jobs.
- Akahata, August 9, 2006