No. 1328 Government’s Policy on Barrier of Annual Incomes
The Kishida administration is implementing a policy to help workers who have anxiety for the so-called barrier of annual incomes. The government engages in two measures: one is to shift workers’ status to be covered by the Kosei-Nenkin Pension Plan, or the employees’ pension scheme. The other is to maintain the status as family members supported by breadwinners, who are exempted from paying taxes. This represents only a temporary measure to cope with the current shortage of workforce. The point lies in the rules to treat workers as individuals and to guarantee their rights.
A TEMPORARY MEASURE TO FAVOR BUSINESSES
Firstly, a step to incorporate short-time workers into the employees’ pension plan: the government will pay business entities up to, in maximum, 500 thousand yen per worker for a certain period, if the companies involve in surging salaries so that workers will not be impacted on their incomes negatively by paying insurance premiums.
The government, in addition, will calculate, maximumly for two years, monthly salaries advantageously to both of employers and employees in order to avoid the drawbacks.
Secondly, a step to maintain the status of supported family members: if short-time workers choose this status and work longer, due to labor shortage, and gain additional incomes exceeding the set levels, they can keep their rank when their employers issue a certificate.
People work unless incomes decrease
Forty percent of workers’ spouses exempted from paying taxes actually work as employees. Among them some pay attention to ‘the barrier of annual incomes’ as they worry about cuts in total income amounts; that means if such short-time workers are paid more than a certain amount (1.06 million yen or 1.3 million yen per annum), they are obliged to pay social insurance premiums or family allowances are not available to the spouses.
Here we have results of a survey held by the Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. in September 2022; the question was ‘Do you want to earn more, if your salary surpasses the so-called barrier but net income will not decrease? In total almost 80% of the respondents said they wanted to work more: 36.8% of all answers showed that they wanted to do so very much and another 42.1% said they would. That indicates the current system limits workers how to work instead that workers themselves decide on how to work.
In order to secure workforce
It is employers, as they face scarcity of labor force, that concern reluctance of workers who worry about losing the status of supported family members, following the minimum wage hike launched in October.
The today’s system has a 37-year-old history. Employers have relied on the Category-3 status of the social programs in which a family model is standardized, in which a fighter-worker of business earns while his wife serves as a house-keeper. This type of families had increased in number in harmony with the needs of employers, but was bankrupted by the introduction of a law, the Act on Dispatching Workers, which has produced numerous low-wage workers. A sudden emergence of the issue of ‘barrier of annual incomes’ derives from the lack of working force which employers must tackle for the sake to secure manpower. That is opportunism on the side of employers.
Consequences from neo-liberal policies
A series of neo-liberal policies have been carried out for decades on the basis of the initiative elaborated by the Liberal Democratic Party in the 1970’s. The costs are condensed in the issue of annual income barrier.
Pension programs will be restructured in two years. Workers as well as women must raise their voices to protest the government.
岸田政権は、「年収の壁」への支援策を開始した。厚生年金加入へ移行と、扶養家族であることを維持する場合に分けた当面策＝労働力不足対策だ。抜本策は個人単位、労働者の権利の充実だ。
対策の１つは、短時間労働者本人が厚生年金保険加入に移行する場合だ。保険料負担を伴うことで減少する手取り収入に相当する手当分等を含め労働者の収入を増加させる取り組みをした企業に対し、一定期間（労働者１人当たり最大50万円）助成する。
さらに労使双方の保険料負担軽減のため、最大２年間標準報酬月額等算定にあたり配慮する。
２つ目は、扶養家族の範囲内を選択する短時間労働者が、人手不足による労働時間延長等による一時的な収入増で「壁」を越えても事業主の証明で扶養家族の範囲を維持できるというものだ。
減らなければ働く
労働者の配偶者であって、扶養され社会保険料負担がない層の約４割が就労している。その中には一定以上の収入（１０６万円または１３０万円）を超えた場合、社会保険料負担の発生や、収入要件のある企業の配偶者手当が無くなる等、手取り収入の減少を避けて就業調整する人たちがいる。いわゆる「年収の壁」を意識する人たちだ。
しかし、野村総研の昨年９月の調査がある。年収の壁を越えても手取りが減らないなら、年収が増えるように働きたいか尋ねたら、とてもそう思う（36・８％）、まあそう思う（ 42 ・１％）を合わせて80％近くが、年収が多くなるように働きたいと回答した。どんな働き方をしたいかではなく、制度が人の働き方を決めてきたことが分る。
労働力確保のため
10月からの最賃引上げで、扶養の枠から外れないよう働き控えが増えることを懸念しているのは深刻な労働力不足に直面する企業側だ。
制度開始から37年。企業が３号被保険者制度に求めた「企業戦士とそれを支える専業主婦」の標準家庭は、同じく企業のニーズに合わせて拡大し続けた「労働者派遣法」による低賃金労働者の増大によって既に成り立たない。現在の「年収の壁」問題の急浮上は、企業側の当面の労働力確保というご都合主義だ。
新自由主義の結果
70年代に自民党政権が練り上げた日本型福祉社会構想を骨組みに、新自由主義政策を推進してきた結果が「年収の壁」に凝縮されている。
２年後の年金制度見直しに向け、女性や労働者が声を上げなければならない。
英訳版↓
No. 1328 Government’s Policy on Barrier of Annual Incomes
The Kishida administration is implementing a policy to help workers who have anxiety for the so-called barrier of annual incomes. The government engages in two measures: one is to shift workers’ status to be covered by the Kosei-Nenkin Pension Plan, or the employees’ pension scheme. The other is to maintain the status as family members supported by breadwinners, who are exempted from paying taxes. This represents only a temporary measure to cope with the current shortage of workforce. The point lies in the rules to treat workers as individuals and to guarantee their rights.
A TEMPORARY MEASURE TO FAVOR BUSINESSES
Firstly, a step to incorporate short-time workers into the employees’ pension plan: the government will pay business entities up to, in maximum, 500 thousand yen per worker for a certain period, if the companies involve in surging salaries so that workers will not be impacted on their incomes negatively by paying insurance premiums.
The government, in addition, will calculate, maximumly for two years, monthly salaries advantageously to both of employers and employees in order to avoid the drawbacks.
Secondly, a step to maintain the status of supported family members: if short-time workers choose this status and work longer, due to labor shortage, and gain additional incomes exceeding the set levels, they can keep their rank when their employers issue a certificate.
People work unless incomes decrease
Forty percent of workers’ spouses exempted from paying taxes actually work as employees. Among them some pay attention to ‘the barrier of annual incomes’ as they worry about cuts in total income amounts; that means if such short-time workers are paid more than a certain amount (1.06 million yen or 1.3 million yen per annum), they are obliged to pay social insurance premiums or family allowances are not available to the spouses.
Here we have results of a survey held by the Nomura Research Institute, Ltd. in September 2022; the question was ‘Do you want to earn more, if your salary surpasses the so-called barrier but net income will not decrease? In total almost 80% of the respondents said they wanted to work more: 36.8% of all answers showed that they wanted to do so very much and another 42.1% said they would. That indicates the current system limits workers how to work instead that workers themselves decide on how to work.
In order to secure workforce
It is employers, as they face scarcity of labor force, that concern reluctance of workers who worry about losing the status of supported family members, following the minimum wage hike launched in October.
The today’s system has a 37-year-old history. Employers have relied on the Category-3 status of the social programs in which a family model is standardized, in which a fighter-worker of business earns while his wife serves as a house-keeper. This type of families had increased in number in harmony with the needs of employers, but was bankrupted by the introduction of a law, the Act on Dispatching Workers, which has produced numerous low-wage workers. A sudden emergence of the issue of ‘barrier of annual incomes’ derives from the lack of working force which employers must tackle for the sake to secure manpower. That is opportunism on the side of employers.
Consequences from neo-liberal policies
A series of neo-liberal policies have been carried out for decades on the basis of the initiative elaborated by the Liberal Democratic Party in the 1970’s. The costs are condensed in the issue of annual income barrier.
Pension programs will be restructured in two years. Workers as well as women must raise their voices to protest the government.
October 25, 2023