54.6% of SMEs plan to raise wages. 85.1% of respondents said they would not pay inflation allowance

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54.6% of SMEs plan to raise wages. 85.1% will not pay inflation allowance |
Neton Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Kita-ku, Osaka, CEO: Satoshi Kijima, hereinafter Neton), which provides the recruitment cloud “Recruitment Manager”, is a registered user of “Recruitment Manager”. We conducted a questionnaire survey on wage increases for those in charge. [Image 1
Against the backdrop of rising prices and labor shortages, major domestic companies are planning high-level wage increases, such as base increases and significant increases in starting salaries. However, the environment surrounding small and medium-sized
enterprises remains severe, and while the business performance that has fallen due to the corona crisis is recovering, there are companies that are struggling to secure profits due to the prolonged soaring raw material prices, intensifying competition to acquire human resources, and the expansion of social insurance coverage. Not a few.
Given that wage increases are expected to spread to SMEs, how will SMEs respond to the wage increase in FY2023?
Neton Co., Ltd. conducted a questionnaire survey on the wage increase schedule for fiscal 2023, targeting recruiters at small and
medium-sized enterprises who are registered users of the recruitment cloud “Recruitment Manager”.
-Summary of Survey-
Survey period: Thursday, March 9, 2023 to Thursday, March 16, 2023 Survey method: Internet survey
Survey target: Personnel and labor managers at offices using “recruitment manager”
Number of valid responses: 335
-Notes on survey results-
Percentages are rounded to the second decimal place when displaying percentages, so they may not match 100% for a single response or the total for multiple responses.
-Investigation result-
・54.6% of business establishments plan to raise wages. The most common wage increase rate is “2 to less than 3%,” with the majority of establishments implementing it in the range of less than 5%. ・Regular salary increase was the most common type of wage increase at 52.5%. The 2nd place is “base increase” with 51.4% of responses. Far exceeded the “temporary wage increase”
・The number one reason for raising wages is to support the livelihoods of employees. The top reason for not doing so was “no improvement (recovery) in business performance expected”
・85.1% answered that they would not pay inflation allowances (special allowances) to deal with rising prices.
54.6% answered that they “plan to implement” wage increases
First, when asked about the wage increase plan for FY2023 (n = 335), 54.6% of the establishments answered that they “plan to implement it.” It was a result that surpassed the business establishments that have no plans to implement it by a small margin.
Compared to the previous survey (conducted in March 2022/n = 192), “plan to implement” increased by 0.4 points. There was no significant change in the percentage of establishments planning to raise wages. [Image 2
More than half implement “regular pay raises” or “base increases” Next, when asked about the content of the wage increase to the business establishments that answered that they “plan to implement” a wage increase in the Q1 question (n = 183), more than half of the business establishments will implement a “regular wage increase” and a “base increase.” I understand.
As in FY2022, companies prioritized regular salary increases and base increases that lead to long-term stability for employees, rather than temporary increases.
However, in this survey, the percentage of respondents who answered “increase base pay” increased by 12 points from the previous survey (39.4%). “Base pay increases” are expected to increase labor costs over the long term, but from the fact that the ratio has increased, it seems that companies are forced to be aware of the need for pay raises. .
[Image 3
The most common answer for the wage increase rate is “less than 2-3%.” Implemented within a range where the majority is less than 5% Regarding the wage increase rate, the most common response was “2 to less than 3%,” at 20.2%. This was followed by “4 to less than 5% (16.4%)” and “1 to less than 2% (15.8%).”
It is clear that 63.4% of the total will raise wages within the range of 0 to less than 5%.
[Image 4
56.8% plan to raise wages for both regular and non-regular employees When asked about the type of employment subject to wage increases, 56.8% answered “both regular and non-regular employment.”
While the majority of business establishments implement wage increases regardless of the type of employment, more than 30% answered “regular employment only.” The result also shows that the disparity in treatment due to the form of employment has not been resolved. [Image 5
The top reasons for wage increases were “to support the livelihoods of employees,” “to improve employee retention rates,” and “to respond to rising prices.”
The most common reason for raising wages was “to support the livelihoods of employees,” at 58.5%. 52.5% of respondents chose “to improve the retention rate of employees (retention)” in second place, and more than half of the respondents chose either of these reasons. The 3rd place, “To cope with the increase in living expenses due to soaring prices,” is approaching 50%.
On the other hand, less than 30% of respondents said that they wanted to hire new staff, to match industry salary standards, or to improve (recover) business performance.
[Image 6
The most common reason for not raising wages is “because improvement (recovery) of performance is not expected”
We also asked the business establishments that answered “no plans” to raise wages in Q1 about their reasons (n=152).
The most common answer was “because improvement (recovery) of performance is not expected.” 47.4% of establishments have chosen this. The 2nd place is “Because the current wage is appropriate” (37.5%). While we can see that small and medium-sized enterprises are in a difficult business situation, there are still many businesses that do not feel the need to raise wages.
[Image 7
85.1% of establishments do not pay inflation allowance
When all business establishments were asked whether they would pay inflation allowances (special allowances) to deal with price hikes (n=335), those that did (“Already paid” + “Will pay”) remained at 14.9%.
More than half of the business establishments will raise wages, but most of the business establishments will not pay inflation allowances. [Image 8
The highest amount of inflation allowance paid is “10,000 to 50,000 yen” for both lump sum and monthly allowance
When we asked the business establishments that answered that they had already paid or will pay the inflation allowance in Q7 about the amount paid (n=50), we received responses from 42 business
establishments.
“10,000 to 50,000 yen” is the most common for both lump sum and monthly allowance, and both account for the majority.
As for other payments, there were responses such as “holiday meal costs”, “electricity fee subsidies”, and “increase in settlement bonuses”.
■ Lump-sum payment amount (paid at 28 offices)
[Image 9
Less than 10,000 yen: 3,000 yen 5,000 yen; For ~30,000 yen, 10,000 to 50,000 yen, and 100,000 to 300,000 yen for 250,000 yen and 100,000 to 300,000 yen.
■ Amount of monthly allowance (paid at 23 offices)
[Image 10
Less than 10,000 yen: 3,000 yen 5,000 yen; “10,000 to 30,000 yen”, “15,000 to 30,000 yen”, “10,000 to 50,000 yen”, and “10,000 to 120,000 yen” for others.
■ Others (6 offices)
・Holiday meal fee 10,000 yen (irregular)
・Increased settlement bonus by 150,000 yen
・Lunch fee assistance (irregular)
・Electricity fee subsidy, etc.
Wage hikes are “essential to improve the retention rate” and “not easy due to rising material prices
When we asked the business establishments (n = 50) that answered that they had already paid or will pay inflation allowances in Q7 about their opinions and impressions about wage increases, we were able to obtain 17 responses. Here are some of them (wording adjusted for readability):
-Free answer/partial excerpt-
・ I want to return as much profit as possible (Others / 10 to 19 people / Saitama prefecture)
・Indispensable for improving the retention rate (construction/real estate/5-9 people/Kyoto Prefecture)
・Although prices are high, it is not easy for companies to raise wages due to rising material prices (construction/real estate/10-19 people/Kyoto)
・Continued growth can improve treatment, but I would like employees to act with a sense of urgency (Publishing/printing/10-19 people/Osaka) ・I think it would be best if the attitude and motivation for work improved due to wage increases. (Others/~4 people/
Prefecture)
Opinions such as “I can’t raise wages even if I want to” and “I can deal with it other than inflation allowance”
There were 101 responses from establishments (n=285) that do not pay inflation allowances (special allowances) (the wording has been adjusted to improve readability).
-Free answer/partial excerpt-
■ Currently, it is difficult to raise wages
・ Sales have not recovered to pre-corona, and even if you want to raise wages, you can not (restaurant / ~ 4 people / Saitama
Prefecture)
・It is difficult to raise wages in the midst of declining operating income and increasing expenses (Education/up to 4 people/Osaka Prefecture)
・The burden of social insurance premiums and the impact of high prices are significant, and there is no way to raise wages (nursing care and welfare / 5 to 9 people / Ibaraki Prefecture)
・Even if you want to, you can’t because of soaring electricity costs (factory/manufacturing/10-19 people/Aichi Prefecture)
・ I think it is difficult for the welfare and nursing care industry (especially small and medium-sized enterprises) (nursing care / welfare / 10 to 19 people / Osaka Prefecture)
・ We would like to respond depending on the increase in processing unit price (factory / manufacturing / 5 to 9 people / Aichi
prefecture)
■ Raise wages by means other than inflation allowances
・Instead of paying inflation allowances, base pay increases
(restaurant/5-9 people/Ibaraki Prefecture)
・ We are responding by factoring in regular salary increases (Medical / 5 to 9 people / Osaka Prefecture)
・Since the future of performance is unknown, we will respond with bonuses instead of raises (Medical / 10 to 19 people / Kanagawa Prefecture)
・Situation where wages are raised with allowances for individual performance. We are not thinking about inflation allowances at the moment (Professional / ~ 4 people / Kagoshima Prefecture)
・Although it is not considered as an inflation allowance, it is assessed based on performance and behavioral evaluations, and wages have continued to increase by 3 to 12% on an annual income basis for the past few years (maintenance and repair / 5 to 9 people / Tokyo) ■Others
Not only is the hourly wage increased, but there is also a barrier to annual income, so part-timers are having trouble working less hours. summary
In this survey, we conducted a questionnaire regarding wage increases scheduled for fiscal 2023 among small and medium-sized enterprises. As a result, 54.6% of business establishments “plan to implement” wage increases. Compared to the previous survey conducted one year ago (March 2022), this is an increase of only 0.4 points.
Wage increases are leveling off, but more than 50% of all business establishments implement “regular wage increases” or “base increases” in terms of wage increases. In particular, the percentage of business establishments implementing base pay raises, which lead to higher labor costs for companies, increased from the previous year (39.4%). It may indicate that a raise in salary levels is inevitable. On the other hand, 45.4% of all business establishments do not plan to raise wages. Nearly half of them cited the fact that they cannot expect an improvement (recovery) in business performance as the reason, and there were also some opinions that they could not raise wages even if they wanted to.
In fiscal 2023, major major companies are planning to raise wages at a high level, and there are concerns that the gap with small and medium-sized companies will widen. increase.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, SMEs have been in a tough situation, but securing and retaining human resources is essential for the survival and growth of companies, and sustainable wage increases for that purpose are one of the most important issues. Small and medium-sized enterprises that are in a difficult situation need to focus on strengthening their management structure, such as improving added value to pass on appropriate prices and improving productivity through the introduction of DX.
Neton Co., Ltd. will contribute to solving recruitment issues and support the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises through the provision of the recruitment business cloud “Recruitment Manager”. – About “Recruitment Manager” –
It is a cloud-based recruitment business tool specialized for use by small and medium-sized companies and local companies. A highly effective recruiting site can be completed in as little as two minutes, and you can centrally manage everything from attracting applicants to the selection process. The created recruitment site can be automatically linked and posted to up to 6 job search engine sites with one click, and it will appeal to job seekers nationwide and improve the ability to attract customers. In addition, the support of our professional staff will increase the success rate of recruitment. Official website: https://saiyo-kakaricho.com
-About Neton-
Since its founding in 2004, Neton has been engaged in the web marketing support business. Based on the desire to create the best possible encounters between companies and job seekers, in 2017 we began offering a recruitment cloud service called “Recruitment Manager”. It has started. Since then, it has steadily increased its performance, and has grown into a service that is used by more than 56,000 (*) business establishments in Japan. Neton will continue to support the recruitment activities of companies with the aim of resolving the difficulty of hiring and the shortage of human resources nationwide, and will contribute to the creation of a society in which small and medium-sized enterprises and local companies are strongly active.
(*) As of March 2023
-Company Profile-
Representative Director and CEO: Satoshi Kishima
Location: 7-8 Nozaki-cho, Kita-ku, Osaka Umeda Park Building 1F Company Established: October 1, 2004
Business description: Development and operation of recruitment business cloud “Recruitment manager”
Capital: 736.28 million yen (including capital reserve)
Official website: https://neton.co.jp/