Section 3 | Trends in Wage Systems |
Companies are implementing wage system reforms toward performance- or ability-based systems. Regular employees approve the introduction of performance-based systems and wage differences based on evaluation, but they feel some concern as to whether such evaluations would be fair. When introducing and operating a performance-based wage system, it is important to gain the agreement of employees by setting proper objectives, maintaining transparency and fairness, etc. Wage differences between regular employees and part-time workers widened throughout the 1990s, even after considering the difference in composition of job types. Dissatisfaction is greater among part-time workers who work more autonomously, suggesting that treatment is inadequate and not consistent with worker performance. In order to make greater use of non-regular employees, it is important to gain the agreement of employees, in terms of wages, by implementing proper evaluation, treatment and human resources development corresponding to the employees wishes and type of employment. |
(1) | The wage difference is widening, even after adjustment of differences in attributes such as industry, company size, age and length of service. While the length of service of part-time workers is increasing, it appears that the evaluation of length of service has not changed when determining wages. |
(2) | In the late 1990s, changes in the composition of job types had a large impact on the widening wage gap. Throughout the 1990s, wage differences appear to have widened even after allowing for the difference in composition of job types (Table 42). |
(3) | One out of every three female part-time workers with a spouse limited their working hours. This is one of the factors behind the wage difference with regular workers. The difference in total labour cost, including social insurance, etc., is about five percentage points higher than for the wage difference. |