Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2017 February 22 - 28 TOP3 [LABOR]

Lifetime wages for part-timers are \100 mil. less than for full-timers

Non-regular workers in Japan receive 100 million yen less in lifetime wages compared to those who work on regular contracts, Akahata reported.

According to the estimate made on the basis of the 2016 statistics of the Labor Ministry, the average lifetime earnings for men and women who constantly worked from 20 to 64 years of age are 131.34 million yen for non-regular workers and 233.51 million yen for regular workers.

At the same time, the same survey shows a dramatic difference in lifetime wages between men and women even among regular employees. While male full-timers earn 252.45 million yen in their working lifetime, female full-time workers receive 187.07million yen. The difference turns out to be more than 65 million yen.

The larger the business non-regular workers are employed, the less they earn. According to the data, the ratio of lifetime wages for non-regular workers to regular employees in small companies in Japan is 66.5%. In contrast, in large companies with more than 1,000 employees, the ratio becomes 48.3%.

The amount of pension benefits people receive after mandatory retirement varies depending on the wages they earned. Because of this, their income gap continues all through their lives. Now that non-regular workers make up about 40% of the Japanese working population, the government should significantly improve their working conditions, including raising wages, to ease their concerns about the future and stimulate consumer spending.

Past related article:
> Contingent workers’ lifetime wages are half of regular workers’[February 26, 2016]