[AMERICA 123]

Uzzy, have you even read the report - just once - fast ???

Here are the wages for the two best paid labor classifications for Toyota auto workers - in Japan.

We will deliberately ignore all the other shocking aspects of being a worker at Toyota and just focus on wages.

We will also ignore overseas operations - many of which are far worse, and will shall initially ignore subcontractors for Toyota in Japan which is also worse

Note: These hourly wages have not been corrected for all the mandatory/ pretend voluntary hours that are put in with no pay.

We will also set aside things like their higher cost of living.

Group 1, Full Time assembly line worker (Japan).

Wages at the Toyota Plant

The base wage of a full-time assembly line worker at Toyota is $19.34 an hour. However, when various bonuses are added, the average full-time wage rises to $20.49.

Full-Time Workers Earn $20.49 an Hour

Toyota full-time workers earn a base wage of 350,000 Yen a month, with an average of another 20,833.33 Yen in bonuses. (As of April 24, 2008, the Wall Street Journal put the exchange rate at 104.42 Yen to $1.00 U.S. Dollar.)

• $20.49 an hour
• $819.55 a week
• $3,551.36 a month
• $42,616.36 a year

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Group 2 ( second best possible) Japanese Temporary Worker (Japan)

Temporary workers—who make up one-third of Toyota’s assembly line workers—are paid a base page of $11.05 an hour, which rises to $12.13 when bonuses are included.

Temps earn just 60 percent of what full-time workers earn.

When benefits are added, the wage disparity is even greater.

(For example, full-time workers receive child benefits of $18.63 a month for one child, $33.52 for up to three children, and $52.67 for four or more children.

Also, at Toyota’s cafeteria, full-time workers eat for $3.96 per meal, while temporary and subcontract workers have to pay around $5.94.)

Temps Earn $12.13 an Hour

Temporary workers earn a base wage of 200,000 Yen a month with an average of another 18,583.33 Yen in bonuses.

• $12.13 an hour
• $485.28 a week
• $2,102.89 a month
• $25, 234.63 a year

Temps earn $8.63 (41 percent) less than full-time workers.

For every temp Toyota hires, in comparison with full-time workers, the company saves $17,381.73 a year in wages, not including the significantly lower benefits paid to temporary workers.
By hiring 10,000 low-paid temps to work on its assembly lines, Toyota is able to cut its direct labor costs by $174 million a year.

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Group 3, Foreign Temporary Worker located and working in Japan.

In July 2007, the International Herald Tribute reported the case of 22 year old Ms. Le Thi Kim Lien, a guest worker from Vietnam.

She often worked 15 ½ hours a day from 8:30 a.m. to past midnight, seven days a week, while being paid just half of the legal minimum wage at a subcontract plant called TMC, which supplied Tokai Craft, which in turn was under contract to supply auto parts to Toyota and Nissan.

Ms. Le and the other Vietnamese workers were fined 15 cents for every minute they took in the bathroom.

She and her coworkers sewed arm and headrests for Toyota cars.

It is typical for guest worker “trainees” to earn—especially during the first year when they are not covered by Japan’s labor laws—Just 50,000 to 60,000 Yen a month, or $478.84 to $574.60.

Guest Workers Often Paid Less Than Half of the Legal Minimum Wage of $7.85 per Hour

• $2.76 to $3.32 an hour
• $110.50 to $132.60 a week
• $478.84 to $574.60 a month
• $5,746.03 to $6,895.23 a year

After deductions for food, housing, local and national taxes and other necessary expenses, some guest workers estimate their take home wages for the entire year amount to less than $600.

In September 2006, the Japanese Mainichi Daily News reported that labor authorities warned 23 subcontract plants supplying Toyota, that hundreds of their Vietnamese workers were being paid below the minimum wage.

Of the 40 small subcontract plants producing textile related auto parts—like seat, arm and head rests—23, or 60 percent had serious labor violations.

Apparently, these serious violations had been going on in broad daylight for at least five years, since 2001.

These guest workers were officially brought in under the “Toyota Technology Cooperative” program which was supposed to be supervised by the Japan International Training Cooperation Organization, which was ostensibly set up to train foreign workers in technology occupations, but in fact turned into a cover for human trafficking and sweatshop abuse.

Second and third year guest workers are covered by Japan’s labor laws, and as such should earn at least the legal minimum wage of 820 Yen or $7.85 per hour in the auto industry in Aichi Prefecture.

However, especially in the small subcontract factories supplying textile related goods to Toyota, even second and third year workers continued to earn as little as 300 Yen an hour, or $2.87, which amounts to just a little over one-third of the legal minimum wage of $7.85.

Despite legal limits on overtime, foreign guest workers typically toil 75 hours a week, putting in 35 hours of overtime on top of their regular 40 hour workweek.

Nor in most cases is overtime paid correctly—at the legal overtime premium of at least 125 percent, or $9.81 an hour.

With guest workers, they paid—at best—straight time or, more often, well below the legal minimum wage.

For a small subcontract plant, such cheating adds up. For a typical 75 hour workweek, the guest workers should have earned $314 for the regular 40 hours of work paid at $7.85 per hour and another $343.44 for the 35 hours of overtime paid at the legal 125 percent premium, or $9.81 per hour.

However, instead of earning $657.44 a week, many guest workers are paid just $215.25 for the week, meaning they are cheated of $442.19, or 67 percent of the wages legally due to them.

In the course of a year, at this rate, each guest worker could be robbed of nearly $30,000 in hard-earned wages due to them.

It is not just the Vietnamese who are being exploited.

While we were in Japan in April, a guest worker from China—a woman who had been working for three years at a subcontract factory supplying Toyota—reported that she and her coworkers were working 16 hours a day, from 8:00 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week, while they were paid just 300 Yen an hour, or $2.87, which—again—is just about one third of the legal minimum wage due to them, of $7.85.

All overtime was mandatory, and the legal overtime premium was not paid.

The workers received the same illegal $2.87 an hour wage no matter how many overtime hours they worked.

[left]The guest workers are in a trap and especially terrified of having their names or even that of their plant mentioned, fearing that any public exposure could lead to their immediate firing and deportation. [/LEFT]

There have also been allegations of at least some sexual harassment of foreign guest workers.

Besides being robbed of their wages, factory owners also cheat the workers in other ways.

As mentioned, guest workers are neither free to relocate to better factories or change the housing management assigns them.

Typically, three, four or even five workers are housed in a small apartment, which would have a market rent of no more than $500 a month.

Instead, factory management often charges each worker up to $380 a month in rent, meaning that even if just three guest workers shared the small apartment, they would be paying $1150 a month, or more than double the true cost of the apartment.

Some subcontractors even extort money from vulnerable guest workers, hinting that they will be forcefully deported if they complain.

In March 2008, Japan’s Justice Minister agreed to crack down on violations of guest worker rights, but despite some recent improvements, many of these abuses continue.