Job Discussion Forums

[TwinCentre]

Hi

I was just browsing this forum and became highly curious regarding the seemingly average salary of 250,000 per month!

I worked in Tokyo back in the late 90s, and remember being on 289,000 with NOVA, but back then 250k was still the average and there was talk even then that it had been the same figure for most schools since the early 90s.

So, it hasn't moved in all that time? That would bother me, getting on for 20 years and teachers are getting a worse deal year after year. Why do people accept it? How has it affected the quality of teaching? Can you still live of it? I bet student's fees have gone up in that time?????

[fluffyhamster]

250K (in hand, after national tax) is still just about enough, but if there are any deductions or delays (as with e.g. dispatch AET pay, pro-rated and backdated by anything up to a month, and often not paid or severly reduced during vacations etc) then things obviously can start getting tight if not precarious. Plus there are (as I'm sure you've noticed, if you've been browsing recent threads) new regulations coming into force that will soon link visa renewal to having paid into national health insurance. I found it hard enough sometimes to find the money just for local taxes! (Not that these seem linked to visas).

[Dipso]

When I worked for Shane in 1998 I earned 260,000 yen a month. There were no mandatory pension/health contributions then either!

[Noor]

It's not just English teachers. Most Japanese haven't had raises. Many have been pushed into holding a number of part-time jobs, or work for temp companies that provide minimal benefits.

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/may2007/gb20070517_814046.htm

[Apsara]

There has been little to no inflation in that time, and there was even deflation in a lot of years, so the lack of pay increases is probably not the major issue it would be in any of our home countries. Prices for most goods/services haven't increased much or at all during that time, although taxes have gone up slightly. I first arrived in Japan in 1995, and prices for most things have remained pretty constant.

[Glenski]

[Noor]

[starteacher]

Retail prices have not gone up so, so salaries neither.

The main cost to all peoples in housing.

But most major cities around the world, inc Tokyo, the cost of living has increased. In London, for example, the salaries rise because of the extortionate costs of housing there, but not at the same rate, so your pound's worth is getting less.....no wonder there are so many homeless. In Japan, housing has not changed much over time, so things have been quite stable.

It could be interesting if tax rates increases.

Other occupations - salaries have generally gone down over time in most countries other than those where they've taken the jobs (ie China and India).

In order to look at salaries you need to look at trends, statistics and a lot of economics. But yes, it does stink if the salary does not rise.

[Mosley]

To put it more nastily than Glenski:

How friggin' pathetic a creature would you have to be to come over to ultra-pricey Nihon to take a salary of 170K/mo.??!!

Even in much cheaper Korea you'd be suckin' wind to get by on it....

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Well, more people will tend to go to other countries instead of Japan in the future- eventually Japanese employers will start realizing that as far as the gaijin go, their competition is not just other Japanese companies, but what foreigners can get in other countries. The problem is that this will likely not lead to higher salaries either, because even if it becomes difficult to get people to fill the positions, many of those positions are being filled by dispatch companies- who make their money by offering more for less. A Board of Education isn't going to say "OK, Mr. S. L. Easy Dispatch, we'll pay you more because you're having a hard time finding people to work for us, because they can get so much more in other countries". They're going to say, "You find someone, or we'll get another dispatch company to do it". Many schools and BoEs currently get foreign teachers from more than one dispatch company as it is and can trade off of them to drive the prices the dispatches can demand down.

Salary dropping, things like salary increases due to experience, number of years worked for the company / school and qualifications in teaching ESOL or k-12 teacher qualifications being very rare, government enforcing tax and pension laws that they know many people simply cannot afford to pay.

Result: people not paying health/ pension and trying to get away without paying resident's tax (by moving). Then leaving when their visa is about to expire.

That's what a lot of Japanese people WANT to happen anyway! The people who don't want that to happen are the governments. They need tax revenue to pay those pensions.

[Glenski]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

Not being able to afford something and not having any way to get the money period are two different things. If you can't afford something that means there's no room in your budget. You can pay if you change your budget (like if you can't afford it, but have cable TV, then get rid of cable TV etc, move into a smaller apartment etc).

The government knows how much foreign teachers and others earn. I don't think foreigners who haven't paid taxes are a big chunk of their thought process on this (it's not like that amount of money is going to turn the economy around)- I think it's far more likely that they're thinking of setting the stage for future immigration- because they know they need it to continue their economy at the level it is now.

And I do think that there's an assumption that foreigners in Japan will eventually 'go home'. And yeah, I think a lot of teachers want foreigners to leave- after a few years. that way they can get a new foreigner who will be here for a few years and so on.

[Glenski]

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[Glenski]