(Tokyo, 24th) There is a huge salary gap between garbage collectors in Japan's public and private sectors. Japanese media have revealed that an estimated annual salary for a garbage collector is about 6 million yen (approximately 158700 ringgit), while the average annual salary for a private garbage collector is about 4 million yen (approximately 105800 ringgit).
Garbage collection can be carried out by local governments themselves, outsourced to private companies, or a combination of both. Local government employees are responsible for garbage collection work. To become local government employees, they must pass the local government's recruitment exam, and garbage collection workers are classified as "technical workers".
According to the "Salary Survey of Local Government Employees as of April 1, 2024" released by the Ministry of General Affairs, the total monthly salary of all local government technical workers in the average salary table by occupation type is 370291 yen (approximately 9770 ringgit). In addition, the bonus for civil servants (year-end bonus/diligence bonus) is 1533543 yen (approximately 40572 ringgit). This means that the annual salary of civil servant garbage collectors is 5.977035 million yen, approximately 6 million yen.
According to the "Basic Survey of Wage Structure in 2024" released by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the fixed cash salary for "cleaners (excluding buildings and structures) and waste disposal workers", including garbage collectors, is 288400 yen (approximately 7600 ringgit) for companies with more than 10 employees, plus year-end bonuses and other special allowances of 536700 yen (approximately 14200 ringgit). The average annual salary is about 3.9975 million yen. In other words, the average annual salary of a private garbage collector is about 4 million yen.
The income of civil servants serving as garbage collectors may be about 2 million yen (about 52900 ringgit) higher than that of private sector employees, and about 1.2 million yen (about 31700 ringgit) higher than that of the general salaried class.
