3% Average Increase Recommended for Minimum Wages revision in October
Minimum wages are revised annually in October. 3% average increase across the nation is recommended by Central Minimum Wages Committee for an upcoming revision in October 2019. This will make the ones for Tokyo and Kanagawa higher than 1,000 JPY per hour for the first time.
The minimum wages are applicable to all of workers including non-Japanese nationals. Should you think your wage is less than the minimum, you would want to talk to your employer about it. It is set as an hourly wage: for a worker paid by monthly salary, his or her hourly wage has to be calculated for comparison. It is a total regular monthly salary, a sum of base salary plus some allowances, divided by regular monthly hours. For more details of this calculation, please visit the 3rd link below. (though it is in Japanese).
More precisely, there are two types of minimum wages in force as follows. Should both be applicable to a specific worker, the higher wage between the two is applied.
- Regional Minimum Wages
- Per prefecture, so that there 47 wages defined across the nation
- Applicable to all of workers
- Specific Minimum Wages
- Per a specific industry. Currently set for 233 industries
- Applicable only to “mainstream” workers within an industry
Link: MHLW – Overview of Minimum Wage Regulations (Japanese)
Link: MHLW – Regional Minimum Wages (as of August 2019 prior to the revision in October) (Japanese)
Link: MHLW – Scope of Monthly Salary for Minimum Wage Calculation (Japanese)