1The new minimum wage was applied from February, and many cities/prefectures left the applicable minimum wage unchanged due to the elimination of sectoral wages and the calculation method stipulated by the Omnibus Law. It can be said that annual wage adjustments have been handled differently than in the past, based on the capabilities and policies of each company. Under such circumstances, the minimum wage amount of each company is changing, making it necessary to revise the wage scale. This time, let's focus on the points to note regarding the wage scale revision.

[Review of wage scale and its dissemination]

Current legislation stipulates that each company is required to set a wage scale in a director's decision. There is no set wage scale that must be set, and it is left up to each company, but it is often a table or graph that shows the minimum and maximum wages for each position or rank. The amount may be determined based on the actual wage amount for each annual wage adjustment, or may be calculated using some kind of formula. In any case, the minimum wage applied by each company is often used as a starting point, and the wage scale changes with each annual wage adjustment. Each time it is revised, it must be stipulated again in the directors' decision. It is also stipulated that the wage scale must be made known to all employees. Therefore, if it is revised, it must be communicated again. However, rather than informing all employees of the entire wage scale, it is mandatory to inform only the part that includes the employee in question, so only employees included in the revised part should be informed. Nowadays, it is rare that the annual wage adjustment does not change the minimum wage of each company at all, so many companies have to notify at least the employees in the ranks closest to the minimum wage every year, and this can actually be a big event. On the other hand, the wage scale of employees with higher positions or higher wages may not be affected even if the minimum wage is revised. In that case, there is no need to inform the public again.

[Well-known evidence]

What bothers me the most is the evidence that proves that it is well known. When an inspection is conducted by the local labor office, you are often asked to show evidence that you have established this wage scale and that you have made it widely known. This is because they are not complied with properly and are likely to come up as points for inspection. A verbal "I told you" is not evidence, so some kind of documentation is required. We recommend that you keep a copy of the information sent to the person by email or written on the wage statement, and if the information was given verbally, please keep a signature stating that you have received the explanation. Wage amounts are a sensitive issue. Of course, it's confidential, so I'm afraid that it might leak to other companies, so I think you might be hesitant to write it down. In such cases, it is useful to present the scale, explain verbally, and make a list of signs indicating that the explanation has been received. However, if you have hundreds of people to target, it will take time, so you will need to be creative.

Related regulations: Article 92 of Law No. 13 of 2003 UU-13/2003, Articles 20 to 22 of Government Decree No. 36 of 2021 PP- 36/2021