Monday, March 02, 2009

Now Its Personal

The icy winds of the current economic climate reached me last week with the arrival of two contract renewal offers.
I need to put them into perspective to see what they mean.
Currently as you see below I'm on a salary of 325,000 yen a month.Five days and forty hours a week.Well above the average salary being offered nowadays.However you must factor in that I've been here a while and got some increments.Im fully aware that the economic circumstances now are not good.Some students I instruct are having to do without over-time and even in some cases have gone to a four day working week.
A friend had done a spreadsheet taking into account exhange rates and possible salary changes.My current salary and details are below.













So to the two new contract offers.The first was a four day on,three day off contract with a base rate of 168,000 yen.Topped up with regional and shift allowance it came to the grand total of 226,000 yen a month.
The second contract offers 3 full days and 2 half days a total of 5 days or 34 hours a week as opposed to my current 40 hours.Obviously the base rate(186,320 yen) is lower than Id predicted nor had I factored in a loss of employment hours.These reductions were explained in terms of the poor business situation.
While the regularity allowance has been reduced there is something called a skill allowance included in the new salary structure.
Its also worth noting that there are 37 and 40 hour contracts available but I wasnt offered one.

















The second new contract offer means that Ive lost working hours and around at least 80,000 yen a month.I know I should be grateful.I at least received a contract renewal.On the other hand you have to bear in mind that the salary is less than what I received when I first arrived here and that there are other jobs available offering more in terms of conditions and salary.Hardly a great incentive to remain either in the job or Japan given the reduced economic conditions and the increased competition for the decreasing number of lower paying jobs available.

1 comment:

Kwok said...

bloody hell mate, tough decision. 80,000 yen is a lot of cash...