By SHINICHI SEKINE/ Staff Writer
December 7, 2023 at 18:04 JST
Care workers rally for a wage hike in Tokyo’s Chiyoda Ward on Oct. 19. (Shinichi Sekine)
Chronically low wages led to a net loss of nursing care workers in 2022 for the first time since 2009, when comparable record-keeping began, labor ministry data showed.
Those leaving the nursing care field outpaced newcomers to the sector by 1.6 percentage points last year.
The trend is bad news for Japan’s rapidly aging population.
The sector will need an estimated 2.8 million workers in fiscal 2040, when Japan’s elderly population is expected to peak. That’s an increase of 690,000 from fiscal 2019, according to the ministry.
However, care providers are struggling to find workers willing to accept the low pay.
In the annual “shunto” wage negotiations in March, employees in private business sectors gained a 3.58 percent average increase in pay, the largest in three decades. But for the nursing care industry, the wage hike barely reached 1.42 percent.
Inflation has exceeded wage increases for care workers because official fees for nursing care services are revised only every three years.
The monthly wage gap between the nursing care sector and the national average, which is already close to 70,000 yen ($476), is expected to widen.
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s government has pledged to provide every care worker an extra 6,000 yen a month, starting in February.
The emergency measure is designed to last until the next revision of nursing care service fees in fiscal 2024.
The Cabinet on Nov. 10 approved a supplementary budget including 53.9 billion yen allocated for the program.
“If we don’t take action now, it will be too late,” a ministry official said.
However, few care workers think an additional 6,000 yen a month is enough.
Leaders from 12 industry groups in October asked Kishida to increase official nursing care fees.
But Kishida faces growing financial challenges to turn the situation around. Raising nursing care fees would requires higher premiums for nursing care insurance, unless the government finds other ways to fund the public insurance system.
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