Japanese employers pay lower than half of their counterparts in China, Hong Kong SAR, and Singapore
Leading global recruitment company, Hays Specialist Recruitment Japan KK, has released the “Hays Asia Salary Guide 2020”

Leading global recruitment company, Hays Specialist Recruitment Japan KK, has released the “Hays Asia Salary Guide 2020”. The guide summarizes the salary levels of 1244 jobs, as well as recruiting trends surveyed from over 5000 working professionals across five Asian countries/regions.
 

This is the 13th edition of the survey that has been conducted annually since 2008.

Key findings

• There is a significant difference in the salary increases between Chinese and Japanese employers. 42% of Chinese employers said salaries increased by 3-6% over the last year, whereas only 23% of Japanese employers increased salaries at the same rate. (Figure1)
• The top reason for switching jobs in Japan is “Seeking new challenges”(56%), whereas “Salary or benefit package” is the top reason for all other countries/region. (Figure2)
• Salary levels of top skilled professionals in China, Hong Kong SAR, and Singapore exceed those in Japan. (Figure 3,4)
   

Figure 1: Salary growth rate over the past year

Figure 2: Reason for switching to new job

Figure 3: Salary level of director level
Salary data based on placement data

*Unit: 1 million yen

Exchange rate used for calculation (1RMB ＝ JPY16, 1HKD ＝ JPY14, 1MYR ＝ JPY27, 1SGD = JPY81)
Including the whole pay package except R&D Director (Life Science)

Figure 4: Salary level of top IT talent
Salary data based on Hays placement data

*Unit: 1 million yen

Exchange rate used for calculation (1RMB ＝ JPY16, 1HKD ＝ JPY14, 1MYR ＝ JPY27, 1SGD = JPY81)
Including the whole pay package except R&D (Life Science)

Due to increasing global competition in the advanced technology field, such as AI related roles, cybersecurity roles, autonomous driving, and so on, there is an increasingly severe shortage of talent worldwide. Considering that companies in other regions pay exceptional compensation for the best talent, Hays recommends that Japanese employers accelerate their wage/evaluation system reform and promptly raise wage levels to global standards if they are to maintain competitiveness in the regional labour market.

Hays Asia Salary Guide 2020

Survey overview
Survey Period: September-October 2019
Sample: China 2,227, Hong Kong SAR 645, Japan 655, Malaysia 825, Singapore 794

“Hays Asia Salary Guide” can be downloaded at: https://www.hays.co.jp/salary-guide

- Ends -

About Hays

Hays plc (the "Group") is a leading global professional recruiting group. The Group is the expert at recruiting qualified, professional and skilled people worldwide, being the market leader in the UK and Asia Pacific and one of the market leaders in Continental Europe and Latin America. The Group operates across the private and public sectors, dealing in permanent positions, contract roles and temporary assignments. As at 30 June 2019 the Group employed 11,500 staff operating from 265 offices in 33 countries across 20 specialisms. For the year ended 30 June 2019:

– the Group reported net fees of £1,129.7 billion and operating profit (pre-exceptional items) of £248.8 million;
– the Group placed around 81,000 candidates into permanent jobs and around 254,000 people into temporary assignments;
– 18% of Group net fees were generated in Australia & New Zealand, 27% in Germany, 23% in United Kingdom & Ireland and 32% in Rest of World (RoW);
– the temporary placement business represented 57% of net fees and the permanent placement business represented 43% of net fees;
– Hays operates in the following countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Chile, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UAE, the UK and the USA