Hello, I'm Kamino, a civil engineer and government employee who writes a blog.
Do you know how much you’re getting paid per hour? When you were a student working part-time, you used to care so much about your hourly wage, but now that you’re a full-time employee, you probably don’t think about it as much anymore, do you?
Here, we'll discuss the salaries of local government employeesHourly rateI think I'll give it a try.
We'll also calculate the hourly rate for overtime pay and other such allowances.
Salaries and Hourly Wages for Local Government Employees
The hourly wage is calculated based on the monthly salary.
You can find the monthly salary for local government employees in the “salary schedule.” Your monthly salary is listed on your pay stub and other documents (*´ω｀*)
Related Articles:How Much Do Local Government Employees Earn? How to Read a Pay Scale
Related Articles:What Is the Regional Allowance for Local Government Employees?
Formula for Calculating Hourly Wage
Here is the formula for calculating the hourly wage.
(Monthly salary + regional allowance) × 12 months ÷ (7.75 hours × (5 days × 52 weeks – holidays))
Although this differs slightly from the official formula, I’ve expressed it this way because it’s easier to understand when thought of in terms of the number of days. For details, please refer to the salary regulations of your local government.
For the purposes of this calculation, “holidays” include the year-end and New Year’s holidays, so the number varies by fiscal year; however, let’s assume 20 days for this example, and set the regional allowance at 0%.
The hourly wage for a young engineer with a monthly salary of 200,000 yen is,
200,000 × 12 ÷ (7.75 × (5 × 52 - 20)) =1,290 yen
It comes to 1,290 yen. That's cheap, isn't it?
If you convert the monthly salary of 200,000 yen to your ’monthly salary + regional allowance,’ you’ll get a rough estimate of your hourly wage, so please give it a try (*’ω’*)
Of course, since there are actually allowances and bonuses, the real hourly wage on an annual basis is a little higher.What is the premium pay for overtime and other work?
I think everyone has heard conversations like, “My overtime pay hit 50,000 this month” or “I worked 80 hours of overtime,” but I suspect few young employees actually have a clear understanding of how the overtime pay system works. This is especially true for technical staff who have no experience with payroll calculations.
Overtime pay is calculated using an hourly rate that is the hourly wage—or, as we calculated earlier, the “wage per hour worked”—plus a premium.
Here is the table of surcharge rates ↓
| Surcharge Rate | Description |
|---|---|
| 1.25 times | Overtime work on workdays (excluding the period from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.) |
| 1.50 times | Overtime work on workdays (between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.) |
| 1.35 times | Overtime Work on Days Off (excluding the period from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.) |
| 1.60 times | Overtime Work on Days Off (Between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.) |
| 1.50 times | Overtime work on workdays when the cumulative overtime for the month exceeds 60 hours (excluding the period from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.) |
| 1.75 times | Overtime work (between 10:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.) on workdays when the cumulative number of overtime hours for the month exceeds 60 hours |
*Note: Although the rules are actually different for regular weekends, national holidays, and the year-end and New Year’s holidays, they are grouped together here because the premium rates are the same.
Since the overtime rate is set by the Labor Standards Act, I believe it’s essentially the same for both public and private sector employees. However, the overtime rate may vary slightly depending on the local government, and calculations can become more complex when working on holidays, so please consider this figure as a rough estimate only.
1.25 times until 10:00 p.m., 1.5 times after 10:00 p.m.
Looking at this table, on weekdays,1.25 times until 10:00 p.m., and 1.5 times after 10:00 p.m.You can see that, right?
In this example, we’ll use the base rate of 1,290 yen mentioned earlier. If you stay to work until 11:00 PM on a workday (with a standard end time of 5:15 PM), the hourly rate from 5:15 PM to 10:00 PM is 1,612 yen (1.25 times the standard rate), and from 10:00 PM to 11:00 PM, it is 1,935 yen (1.5 times the standard rate).
Prices are higher on weekends than on weekdays.
Furthermore, if you work on weekends, even if you’re doing exactly the same work as on weekdays,Unit price is 1.35 timesThat’s how it ends up. I think you can understand why some people are willing to work on weekends, and why the HR department and management try to prevent them from doing so.
Furthermore, if it's at night,The unit price is 1.6 times higherSo that's how it is! T-that's expensive ( ﾟДﾟ)
You might think, “Well, I definitely won’t be working overtime after 10 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays,” but if, for example, you have night shift work on Friday that carries over into Saturday, the hourly rate after midnight will be Saturday’s rate, right? So, as you can see, nighttime rates for Saturdays and Sundays do come into play sometimes.
If the cumulative number of overtime hours in a month exceeds 60 hours
If the cumulative number of overtime hours in a month exceeds 60 hours, the hourly rate will increase by an additional 0.25 times.
W-w-w-wait, the hourly rate for night shifts goes up to 1.75 times the base rate for shifts over 60 hours! Even if the base rate is 1,290 yen, it’s 2,257 yen at night! That’s a rate on par with a full-fledged section chief.
I believe there are some local governments that prohibit working more than 60 hours of overtime per month.In Closing
Well, that’s a brief overview of the hourly wages for local government employees.
Overtime rates are pretty high, aren’t they? Rates go up even more after 10 p.m. and on holidays, but the reason for that is that working those hours isn’t good for your physical or mental health—so they raise the rates to discourage overtime. Willingly working overtime or coming in on your days off is putting the cart before the horse ( ﾟДﾟ)
For a more detailed explanation, please contact the person in charge of HR and payrollKomuzou's BlogI think this will make it easier to understand, so please check out the link below ↓
I've also written some articles introducing books on money and stock investing, so please check them out when you have a moment.
Related Articles:Here are three books about money
Related Articles:A Local Government Employee Explains Stocks: “What Are Stocks?”
Well, that's all for today.
See you later (*’ω’*)ﾉ
