Fast Retailing to unify wage system worldwide

Rabu, 24 April 2013 01:05

(TOKYO-Kyodo) Japanese retailer Fast Retailing Co. will unify its payment system for its employees and executives worldwide, as part of efforts to recruit skilled workers and expand its global business by offering higher wages, company officials said Tuesday.

Employees around the world assessed to be in the same grade according to their duties will receive equivalent payment, reflective of price levels in each country, so as to allow them to maintain the same living standards.

The company is planning to apply such a system to those in the eighth to the 14th grades and will consider whether to also apply the remuneration system to lower grades, the officials said.

For workers categorized in the top seven grades, Fast Retailing has already unified their wage levels, paying the same amount to employees in each category.

The operator of the Uniqlo casual clothing chain has around 4,900 full-time employees and executives in 13 countries and regions such as in Britain and China, and they are divided into 19 grades based on their job duties.

Fast Retailing plans to boost the number of stores four-fold to about 4,000, with roughly 3,000 of them overseas, by 2020.