Japan Press Weekly

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2016 June 22 - 28 [POLITICS]

PM Abe’s claim that ‘wage gap has narrowed’ is outright lie

In the ongoing Upper House election campaign, Prime Minister Abe Shinzo is frequently saying, “The wage difference between regular workers and non-regular workers has been shrinking since the Abe government came to power. I’ll work to eliminate non-regular jobs from the country by promoting an equal pay for equal work policy.” However, the prime minister’s claim is completely opposite to the policies he has implemented in the past three and a half years.

Under the slogan of creating “the easiest country worldwide in which to do business”, PM Abe has carried out policies encouraging companies to replace regular employees with contingent workers.

The Abe administration has slashed public subsidies to help companies avoid job-cuts. In contrast, it has significantly increased subsidies to promote corporations’ downsizing schemes. If a company outsources to a temporary staff agency the job placement services as part of job-cuts measures, the company can receive government grants.

On top of that, in September 2015, the ruling coalition forced through the Diet an amendment to the Worker Dispatch Law to undermine the legal principle of banning employers from replacing regular employees with temporary workers.

Under the Abe regime, the percentage of contingent workers among total workers increased from 36.7% in 2013 to 37.6% in the January-to-March quarter in 2016.

The 2015 Basic Survey on Wage Structure published by the Labor Ministry shows that the average of monthly wages for regular workers was 352,400 yen while that for non-regular workers was 222,900 yen. Non-regular workers’ monthly pay is only 63% of regular workers. The figure remains practically unchanged from the 62% figure in 2012 when PM Abe took power.

Abe is also boasting that the number of job offers has been on the rise, citing the fact that the ratio of job offers to seekers inched up to 1.34 in April 2016. On the other hand, the ratio of regular job openings to seekers is only 0.85. Most job vacancies are temporary and low-paid jobs in the construction and service industries.

It is a complete contradiction for the prime minister to call for bridging the wage gap between regular and non-regular workers while continuing to implement policies which lead to an increase in the number of low-wage contingent workers.