10 Comments

I think mandatory minimum wage laws are bad.

They are also misleading. What is more relevant is what actual wages are employees getting. For example I think Shimane's minimum wage is under 1000 (962?) but when I see ads for arbeito jobs they are all at least 1000 and often 1100 for regular hours with later nights/weekends being higher still 1200+ and/or they offer benefits to go with the 1000/hr base like a free meal

Full time work appears to be higher (though I admit to not checking in detail, just looking at occasional ads I see)

By far the best thing the government could do is set the minimum tax threshold to 50 week of 40 hours at the current minimum wage (~2M Y)

I don't know where to get the statistics but my hunch is that almost all jobs pay more than minimum wage and that those rates are gradually going up thanks to the labor shortage. If the actual minimum wage goes up above 1500/hour it doesn't matter what the legal minimum wage does

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Thank you for reading and sharing your opinion. There is a school of thought, supported by historical evidence, that by raising the minimum wage, nations often help to raise wages overall - especially for low-income workers. However, I am aware that people have strong opinions about the whole concept of a minimum wage.

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Problem is that you end up with a fraction of the population that is unemployable because no employer can afford to pay them the minimum wage and make a profit off their labor. So yes it does raise wages - for those that still have jobs. It also tends to raise unemployment

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Well, that's one point of view. The minimum wage is just one factor among many that affect employment levels. Other factors such as economic growth, technological advances, and government policies also play an important role. That's why it's difficult to make a definitive statement about the impact of minimum wage increases on unemployment.

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Hopefully minimum wage doesn't increase like it has in the US, but it probably will. The higher the mandatory pays set by gov, the more society suffers and becomes too expensive. Taxes increase, goods increase, cost of living increases.

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Thank you for reading and leaving a comment. While that's one way to look at it, another perspective is that a higher minimum wage helps raise wages across the board, which in turn helps boost a nation's economy.

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I would like to see *my* wage raised proportionately to the minimum wage while we're at it. University lecturers' salaries (and everyone in the education sector for that matter) seem to be frozen, while hiring standards are higher and workloads are heavier. I am all for those making minimum wage being paid a fairer salary, but my cost of living is rising while my pay remains the same. I may have to take a minimum-wage part-time job just to make ends meet if there are no changes across the board...

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I am sorry to hear about your frustrating personal situation. Do you belong to a union? If so, isn't your union doing something to help its members get better benefits, including a raise in base pay?

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Surely, converting Japan's minimum wage to USD is irrelevant? Minimum wages in Japan need to be seen in the context of the cost of living in Japan, which is significantly lower than in many other developed countries. For the same reason, the concept of a national minimum wage also seems mis-guided, since the cost of living in rural prefectures is probably much lower than in, say, Tokyo. I'm therefore glad to learn that in Japan minimum wages are set at the prefectural level, not nationally. Instead of fixating on a national minimum wage, the government would do well to incentivise the economies of rural prefectures.

When it comes to raising the minimum wage, it's important to distinguish between a nominal increase and a real (ie, after inflation) increase. While consumer price inflation has been very low or even negative in Japan for several decades, anyone living in Japan today knows that supermarket prices, to name but one, have been rising much faster than official statistics try to suggest in recent years. Import prices have risen by an average of more than 10% in the past year, and rising producer/wholesale prices will also feed into higher consumer prices. Given that the Bank of Japan cannot raise interest rates without crashing the global financial system, the purchasing power of the JPY is going to continue to decline on the foreign exchange markets, further undermined by the Bank of Japan's money printing aka currency debasement.

So, yes, the minimum wage needs to rise to protect the standard of living of Japanese families from rising consumer prices; but the JPY must be debased to allow the financial system to survive. My bet would be that the interests of Japanese consumers will be sacrificed on the altar of what the (bankrupt) bankers need. Again.

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Thank you for reading and sharing your perspective.

While I agree with you that a real (after inflation) increase is key, I am not sure that it is necessary to fine-tune the minimum wage differences at the prefectural level in Japan. I understand your point about differences in the cost of living across the country, but the laws of supply and demand also come into play (e.g. note the photo of the Hama-sushi help wanted ad). Analyzing the minimum wage in 47 different ways just seems too complicated for such a small country.

Converting Japan's minimum wage into U.S. dollars is relevant as one way to evaluate Japan's global competitiveness. Lower minimum wages may attract foreign investment and manufacturing, while higher minimum wages may encourage innovation and higher-skilled jobs. Japan's relatively low wages are likely a factor that Japanese manufacturers consider when assessing the value of reshoring production back to Japan.

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