Economy pays tab for Japan Inc’s free lunch on overtime

Japanese workers put up with long hours and unpaid overtime under pressure from cost-saving companies, and figures from government, which wants more money in workers' pockets to boost consumer spending, appear to underestimate the problem. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is trying to enact labor reforms as part of his “Abenomics” plan to end decades of stagnant growth and deflation. Government data shows that Japanese work an average of 14.2 hours of overtime a month, but 2,000 respondents in a recent survey by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation said they worked an average of 40.3 hours of overtime a month, and get paid for just 22.7.

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Economy pays tab for Japan Inc’s free lunch on overtime