Recently, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare released the wage situation for all 144 occupations in the "Basic Survey on Wage Structure for 2023."
According to the survey results, the average salary for salaried employees working full-time throughout the year is 4.58 million yen. When divided by gender, it is 5.63 million yen for men and 3.14 million yen for women.
Some may find it difficult to live on an annual income of 4.58 million yen, while others may feel they earn less. In fact, looking at the distribution of wage levels, the most common range is "over 3 million yen but less than 4 million yen," with 8.4 million people, accounting for 16.5% of Japan's population.
On the other hand, there are 18.04 million people earning "over 10 million yen but less than 15 million yen," 3.75 million people earning "over 15 million yen but less than 20 million yen," and 1.16 million people earning "over 20 million yen." There are 151 people earning less than 25 million yen and 151 people earning over 25 million yen. The number of high-income earners has been increasing steadily since the 2018 survey.
When working for a company, what kind of job can earn over 10 million yen annually? Let's take a look at the "Basic Survey on Wage Structure for the 5th Year of Reiwa" conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
The top spot goes to "airplane pilot." The average annual salary is 17,794,100 yen (average monthly salary of 1,380,500 yen, average age of 43.4 years, and average work experience of 15.6 years).
As pilots are responsible for many lives, they require exceptional skills and physical stamina, including adapting to jet lag. However, this profession has a small number of practitioners, with only 5,170 people (compared to 127,000 doctors), and it's not a job that can be entrusted to just anyone, so it's not surprising that it ranks first.
Japan also faces the "2030 problem," where a large number of pilots hired in the late 1980s will retire around 2030, leading to a shortage of human resources.
Currently, there are 79 occupations with an average salary exceeding 4.58 million yen. Apart from "pilot" and "doctor," those earning over 10 million yen annually include "legal professionals" (average monthly salary of 770,800 yen, average bonus of 1,967,200 yen, average age of 51.2 years, and average work experience of 5.6 years), and only "university professors (including specialized schools)" (average monthly salary of 666,300 yen, average bonus of 2,751,500 yen, average age of 58.1 years, and average work experience of 17.4 years).
Below is the detailed ranking of annual income for various occupations in Japan:
