Japan Overtime Pay:

 https://mainichi.jp/english/articles/20210209/p2g/00m/0bu/082000c

Article:

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Average overtime pay in Japan in 2020 fell 12.1 percent from the previous year, the sharpest drop in 11 years, as the coronavirus pandemic forced many businesses to cut their operating hours, government data showed Tuesday.

The average stood at 17,352 yen ($165) per month, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said in a preliminary report that covered workplaces with at least five workers. The pace of decline was the fastest since 2009 when the global financial crisis and economic downturn caused a slide of 13.5 percent.

By sector, the average plunged 33.5 percent among livelihood services such as hair salons as well as the entertainment industry. Restaurant and hotel operators marked a 27.3 percent fall while manufacturers saw a 19.5 percent drop.

Ideas:

Overtime is always welcome by most workers. Its provides for some extra income which might be used related to consumer spending or even meeting daily necessity needs.

But more importantly it can have a synergistic affect meaning as workers get the extra income from their places of work and then they use it at other businesses, who then get extra sales, and then their workers keep the jobs and or get extra income as needed and it goes on in an economy.

The idea that some businesses can go to close early means their workers lost out on extra income and then other businesses and their workers might have lost out on extra sales and or extra income.

So any time there is are the emergency measures, which of course are most likely needed it has a negative synergy affect meaning not only is it reducing sales and extra income for one group and then it affects other groups in an economy and society.

Article:

Monthly overtime hours of all workers fell 13.2 percent on average for 2020, also the biggest decline since a 15.0 percent decline in 2009.

The average total cash earnings per worker, including base and overtime pay, fell 1.2 percent last year to 318,299 yen on a nominal basis for the second straight year of decline.

The survey also showed that part-timers made up 31.14 percent of the country's workforce last year, down 0.39 point from 2019 and the first decrease since the survey began in 1990, as the pandemic seriously damaged the service sectors, which employ many nonregular workers.

Ideas:

An increase in part-time workers seems to be a global trend ever since the 2208/2009 global financial crisis as companies are relying more and more on part-timers as a way to reduce cost.

The major challenge related to this is like above. These part-timers don't receive the same salary as a full-time worker and as such have less to spend in the economy, or less disposable or extra income.

Many of these part-time workers might even be working two or three part time jobs just to make ends meets.

So while companies might think they are saving money by not paying full-time salaries to these workers and saving on reduced company benefits it too has a negative synergistic affect in that there might be less disposable income available in the economy or less money moving through the economy which reduces overall demand and might have the affect of increasing the chances of deflation growing even more which the Bank of Japan is worried about.

Have a nice day and be safe!