Japan’s smallest-ever gender wage gap

The Ministry of Health, Labour, and Welfare has released the results of its basic survey on wage structure for 2022.

Ordinary workers

(1) The average monthly wage was 311,800 yen (up 1.4% over the previous year). By gender, the average monthly wage was 342,000 yen (up 1.4%) for men and 258,900 yen (up 2.1%) for women. The average monthly wage for women was the highest ever and was 75.7% that of men, the smallest gap ever.

Looking at the wage curve by gender, for men wages tend to increase as the age group gets higher, with a peak at 416,500 yen at the ages of 55-59 (if the wage at the age of 20-24 is set at 100, this is 188.9), after which they decline. For women, the peak is also at the age of 55-59, at 280,000 yen (129.4), but the increase in wages is slower than that of men.

(2) Wage differentials by enterprise size and gender

The average for both men and women was 348,300 yen at large companies, 303,000 yen at medium-sized companies, and 284,500 yen at small companies. By gender, for men the average monthly wage was 386,600 yen (up 2.8% over the previous year) at large companies (more than 1,000 full-time workers), 331,200 yen (up 1.0%) at medium-sized companies (100-999 full-time workers), and 308,100 yen (up 1.5%) at small companies (10-99 full-time workers). The wage gap (large companies = 100) between the various enterprise sizes was 85.7 (middle-sized companies) and 79.7 (small companies), respectively.

For women, the average monthly wage was 278,200 yen (up 2.7% over the previous year) at large companies, 257,000 yen (up 1.8%) at medium-sized companies, and 241,300 yen (up 2.7%) at small companies. The wage gap (large companies = 100) between the various enterprise sizes was 92.4 (middle-sized companies) and 86.7 (small companies), respectively.

(3) Wage differentials by type of employment

The average monthly wage for regular employees was 328,000 yen (up 1.4% over the previous year) and for non-regular employees was 221,300 yen (up 2.1% over the previous year). The average monthly wage of non-regular employees was 67.5% that of regular employees (up from 67.0% in the previous year). By gender, for men, wages were 353,600 yen for regular employees and 247,500 thousand yen for non-regular employees, while for women, wages were 276,400 yen for regular employees and 198,900 yen for non-regular employees. The wage gap between regular and non-regular employees (with regular employees set at 100) was 67.5 for both men and women, with men at 70.0 and women at 72.0.

(4) Wages by industry

Looking at wages by industry, the average wages for both men and women were highest in the electricity, gas, heat supply, and water supply industries (402,000 yen), followed by the academic research, professional and technical services industries (385,500 yen), while the lowest wages were in the accommodation and food services industries (257,400 yen).

Hourly wages of short-time workers

The average hourly wage of short-time workers was 1,367 yen (down 1.2% from the previous year). By gender, it was 1,624 yen (down 0.4%) for men and 1,270 yen (down 1.6%) for women.

By enterprise size and gender, for men, it was 1,458 yen at large companies, 1,950 yen at medium-sized companies, and 1,575 yen at small companies, while for women, it was 1,249 yen at large companies, 1,327 yen at medium-sized companies, and 1,250 yen at small companies.