Average Salary in Private Sector Drops for Eighth Consecutive Year
Monday, October 16, 2006 Posted: 06:45 PM JST
The average annual income per salaried worker dropped 0.5% from the previous year, according to the Report on the Survey of Wages and Salaries in Private Firms in 2005. This makes it the eighth consecutive annual drop. Although newspaper headlines have been shouting that Japan is heading for its longest expansion since World War II, interviews with people on the street show that few people, if any, feel that times have gotten better. The National Tax Agency report confirms those feelings.
According to the report, 44.936 million salaried workers worked throughout the year, an increase of 0.9 percent from the previous year. The average annual income per salaried worker was 4.368 million yen, a decrease of 0.5% compared to 2004.
In terms of business size, the annual salary of those who work for businesses with fewer than 10 employees averaged 3.56 million yen, while for those in businesses with 5,000 or more employees it averaged 5.61 million yen. Some 16.92 million salaried workers (37.6% of the total) earned 3 million yen or less, an increase of 3.2 percent from 2001. Those earning 1 million yen or less totaled 3.56 million (7.9% of total). These numbers indicate the continuous increase of low-income earners and show fuel on the debate that Japan is becoming a country of 'winners' and 'losers'.
US$=119yen (October 16, 2006)
Keywords: national_news
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