Japanese Industry in the American South by Choong Soon Kim

Author:Choong Soon Kim [Kim, Choong Soon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Anthropology, General
ISBN: 9781136665752
Google: _CMiAwAAQBAJ
Barnesnoble:
Goodreads: 607332
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 1995-09-12T00:00:00+00:00

WAGES AND JOB TURNOVER

Since the woman commented on wages, it is worthwhile to add a few words about them. Of course, wages differ from firm to firm, and are based on levels of skill, experience, education, and job performance. Also, wages vary according to the reputation as well as the size of the firm and its geographical location. In Tennessee, the wage scales of East and West Tennessee (other than in Memphis) are lower than that of Middle Tennessee.

At big and better-known firms, such as Nissan in Middle Tennessee, where it is hard to get a job, the starting salary for high-school graduates without any prior work experience was reported in 1991 to be $11.65 per hour, although after the probationary period, a bonus is added to the basic hourly wage. The comparable worker’s wage at Eastech was $7.00 (plus $100 annual bonus for perfect attendance or $50 for 99 percent attendance), $7.31 at Midtech, and just over $5.00 of Westech.

Wage scales of Japanese firms run slightly higher than the norm of the wages of the region where they are located. The Japanese are reluctant to pay much more than the established regional norm because they do not want to be blamed for escalating the regional wage scales. In all cases, the wages paid by the three firms in this study in 1991 are lower than the national average of $11.18, and even lower than the state average of $9.91.11

Since the Japanese firms offer better job security than do their American counterparts, lateral movement of workers from one company to another is less than the American norm. In the case of Westech, the yearly labor turnover rate in 1990 was 15 percent. Several Westech employees are waiting for any vacancy in an American manufacturing firm located nearby. Since there are quite a few Japanese firms in the vicinity of Midtech, some employees already have moved to better-paying, more reputable companies; in the summer of 1992 alone, 3 out of the 184 Midtech employees joined firms such as Nissan. A quality control manager told me, “I originally came to Tennessee from Illinois to work for Nissan, but I was unable to get a job from Nissan. I ended up working here.” He hinted that if any job for which he qualified opened up, he would go to Nissan. Midtech had been his second choice.

Since Eastech has an international reputation and also pays slightly higher wages than any other firm in the region, most Eastech employees are satisfied with their employment. This is reflected in Eastech’s labor turnover rate of less than 5 percent annually. However, for the last four years, Eastech’s labor turnover raate has increased. In 1994, it reached to 12 percent annually. No one knows for sure why there is an increase. One of my informants in Eastech speculates that it may be in part related to the improvement of job situation in the U.S. domestic firms. It is my observation that the rate of labor turnover and lateral

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