Panel Calls for Pay Hike for Teachers

Jiji Press

17:31 JST, May 13, 2024

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — An advisory panel to the education minister on Monday proposed raising allowances for public school teachers that are paid instead of overtime pay, for the first time in about five decades.

A subcommittee of the Central Council for Education called for raising the allowances to 10% of monthly salary or higher from 4% at present, as part of efforts to secure public school teachers.

The education ministry plans to submit a bill to raise the allowances to the Diet early next year.

If the figure is raised to 10% , it will cost the central and local governments some ¥210 billion more in total annually.

The subcommittee also proposed raising allowances for teachers with heavy workloads, principals and vice principals to build a payroll system according to teachers’ duties and working conditions.

Public elementary and junior high school teachers are estimated to have worked some 41 hours and some 58 hours overtime per month, respectively. The subcommittee proposed reducing monthly overtime to within 45 hours first and to around 20 hours eventually.