PUBLIC POLICY
Vol.34-No.11 November 1,1995
NPA Recommends Pay Raise for National Government Employees
On August 1, the National Personnel Authority (NPA) recommended an average of 0.9 percent fiscal 1995 pay raise for national government employees. As of April 1995, employees of the private sector received salaries averaging 3,097, yen or 0.9 percent larger than those for national and local government employees. The basis of this comparison is for monthly pay of 342,847 yen for the 39.5 year-old government empoloyee as against 345,944 yen for an employee of the private sector of similar age and education. The NPA proposed an increase of 2,786 yen in pay, 125 yen for allowances and of 186 yen for other categories. The proposed 0.9 percent raise, which reflects the smallest wage increase rate settled for this year's private sector wage talks, is the smallest since fiscal 1960 when the personnel authority began making recommendations on pay. This follows the average 1.18 percent fiscal 1994 pay hike which was the smallest ever recorded.
The authority gives yearly advice to employees of the national government, who are not allowed to negotiate their own salaries. The NPA's recommendation on pay is practically the only chance for them to get salary increases. It directly covers approximately 510,000 national public servants in the non-operational sector. However, it also substantially affects revision of salaries for a total of 4.52 million public servants--about 1.16 million national government employees and about 3.36 million local employees--plus employees of public organs such as special corporations and foundations.
Furthermore, a report published concurrently with the recommendation pointed out the following five tasks. First, expanding opportunities for exchange in and out of the public sector by consolidating conditions for exchange with the private sector. Second, assuring capable and experienced researchers to envigorate research activities and to reflect their research work in their salaries. Third, ensuring fewer transfers and alleviating economic and psychological burdens for transferees. Fourth, examining duty hours in consideration of smooth operations of public services and staff members' health and welfare and vacations for volunteer work. Fifth, measures to deal with the elderly in public services. Of the five tasks, in relation to measures to deal with the elderly the report stressed the need to keep public servants on the payrolls until they reach the age of 65. The NPA will set the mandatory retirement age at 60 and will study adoption of a system of re-employing public servants until the age of 65. Within a year, it will publish the framework of the system, which needs to be implemented in a phased manner starting 2001 when the revised national pension scheme will go into effect, the report said.
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