White-collar employees express low expectations for salary increase next year

TOKYO, Oct 7th, 2019 – Specialist professional recruitment firm Robert Walters Japan announced the results of a survey conducted with white-collar workers regarding estimated salary increases for next year.

White-collar employee says, “A 10% salary increase is unlikely.”

2,460 office workers were asked about their basic salary increase next year. 33% said “I think it will be raised by about 1-3%”, 25% said “I don’t think my salary will be raised”, and 20% said “I think it will be raised by about 4-6%. Only 11% of all participants said they expect an increase of 11% or more, close to the equivalent for changing jobs.

Even with the consumption tax hike introduced in October, 25% of employees said: “I don’t think my salary will be raised.”

Shigeki Yaginuma, Senior Marketing Manager at Robert Walters Japan, who oversaw the survey, commented: “In this survey, conducted at a time when the consumption tax rate was about to be raised to 10%, we focused on whether the employees are expecting a salary increase next spring or not. We found that almost half of the employees expect their salary to be raised about 1 to 3% or expect their salary to remain the same. Furthermore, 79% of permanent employees stated that they foresee a raise in the salary, while 46% of contract or temporary employees do not expect a pay increase at all. The ‘equal work, equal pay’ legislation will be enacted next year, but the signs are not yet felt.”