Japan Press Weekly

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2014 July 30 - August 12 [LABOR]

Government workers will receive first pay raise in 7 years

The National Personnel Authority (NPA) on August 7 recommended that the Diet and the Cabinet of Prime Minister Abe Shinzo increase national government workers’ wages for the first time in seven years.

The NPA recommendation seeks to increase monthly salaries by 0.27% on average and annual bonuses by an equivalent of 0.15 month’s salary. If the recommendation is implemented, government workers will earn 79,000 yen more on average than last year.

This wage hike, however, is insufficient given the facts that the higher consumption tax has triggered a price rise and that the government has imposed on its workers an average of 7.8% cuts in pay since 2012 under the guise of securing a fund for recovery from the March 11 disaster.

The NPA issues its recommendation based on its survey results of private sector workers’ wages. The April survey results showed that the average wage of private sector workers exceeded that of government workers by 1,090 yen, or 0.27%.

Meanwhile, the personnel authority requested the government to revise the current remuneration structure comprehensively over three years from next year. If the revision is carried out, it would bring about various adverse effects, such as a wider gap between government workers’ allowances depending on regions and lower wages of workers in their late 50s.

National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) Secretary General Inoue Hisashi on the same day issued a statement. In the statement, regarding the NPA’s decision to raise government workers’ wages, Inoue said that private and public sector workers’ joint struggle produced this outcome. He also urged the NPA to remove the payment structure revision from the recommendation.

Japan’s national government workers’ wages are determined by the government based on the NPA recommendation. This measure was established in 1948 as compensation for the restriction of their fundamental labor rights.

Past related articles:
> National gov’t workers suffer pay cuts while having no right to collective bargaining [February 24, 2012]
> Government employees’ wage cuts irrational [June 29, 2011]