잉글리쉬쇼핑

For Japanese Salaryman, Nearly a Decade of $4 Annual Pay Raises

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  Japanese accountant Masamitsu has not traveled or gone to the cinema in years and rarely eats out.
  
  Instead, his annual salary of about $34,000 goes to support his family and has risen by just $4 a year for nearly a decade.
  
  "I can't save, I have nothing at all put by for my old age. I'll just have to keep on working," said the 50-year-old, who declined to give his last name out of concern for his job at a small company that works in event planning.
  
  "After I retire from this company, I'll do anything I can get. Maybe work as a security guard."
  
  Masamitsu's plight mirrors that of many workers at small and medium-sized firms in Japan, where the average salary in 2020 was $38,515, little changed from the 1990s and well below the average of $49,165 in countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).