I work in gamedev and it’s a well-known industry for not paying well. But the inflation and cheap yen since last year hit me hard. This is a fantastic job with fantastic people and they have a nice office culture as well. I also love where I’m living now and not looking to move at all.
I secretly plan to look for a new employer if my pay still stays the same, but I’m not confident that I will not regret it.
People in Japan, any guidance for a naive young adult here?
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ask your colleagues! if no one else got nuggets raises on year three you’re probably out of luck, but if everyone did or some top performers do you know what’s possible
It’s hard to say whether a 3rd year alone warrants a bigger raise, that depends on your company. But given the inflation and cheap yen is a recent thing that only hit last year, and company budgets are planned year by year, you’ll likely only know if there will be an inflation/COL raise or a COL bonus in April?
If you’re currently working for a small game studio/company, and you have any ambitions of having an illustrious career in game development, I’d advise you to look for a new employer regardless of whether they give a raise. Preferably in an 大手メーカー. The kind of work and exposure you get in a big company is very different from a small company, and the pay is also nothing to sneeze at either.
If they pay you the same, you are getting a pay cut.
Inflation is a thing.
Anecdotally, these “fun” industries like gaming, music, anime/manga are notorious for underpaying workers and banking on employees staying for “the love of the job”. It was at least true for me when I worked in the music business. “You get to be near some music greats! That’s why you’ll get paid a pittance!”.
If you’re looking for a significant pay rise, changing jobs would be the best bet, imo.
It depends on the company, and the department. Assuming you are in GameDev, have you worked on a project that has been released or is about to be released? Where I work, we get low base wages every few years, and then relatively decent raises (~10% or more) around the release of a new project that we contributed to.
The easiest way to find out how raises are handed our is to ask your boss directly.
Get a promotion instead.
Or if that’s not an option, a better title at same pay.
That will help you land a better paying next job.
I have had no salary increase since 2016.
I work for a medium-large Japanese company.
Just so you know….
In general large Japanese companies will kind of automatically promote you and give you raises when your young. I feel like most new grads start at 5M yen and they kind of all get increases to 10M yen over a period of 10-15 years. Not exciting or life changing numbers but it works for lifetime employment companies I guess.
On the other hand American companies will absolutely not give you a yearly raise unless you change jobs or are promoted.
If you like where you work and who you work with, why not organise your coworkers into a union and negotiate collectively for better wages for everyone? It’s likely your coworkers would like a raise too.
I worked at a company in the food industry for three years, and after 18 months I received a raise of 20,000/month. But I also had to threaten to quit to get it, and it was like six or seven years ago.
It’s hard for us to know what your office culture is like. Can you ask your colleagues if they’re getting raises? Is pay an issue for others? Inflation is kicking Japan’s ass right now, and it’s likely every worker in every company (not to mention the managers) is dealing with this same problem.
You should ask for a minimum raise to cover inflation for the year but probably more since you haven’t had a raise in several years so 10-15% would be reasonable, not sure if realistic though, that depends on what company you work for.