Reading Global(2022.03.08)
[Japanese women's annual salary income is only 74% of men's]
Japan Economic News reported on the 8th that the salary gap between men and women is still difficult to eliminate. Especially in Japan, compared with Europe and the United States, the salary gap between men and women in Japan is very large, and the annual salary income of women is only 74% of that of men. The main reason is that there are fewer women in managerial and high-paying professional positions.
The fixed salary (monthly salary) for Japanese workers working full-time in 2020 is 338,800 yen (about 18,526 yuan) for men, while only 251,800 yen (about 13,768 yuan) for women.
Equal Pay Day (2018-2019), an indicator that calculates how many more days women need to work to earn a man's 1-year income, found that Japanese women would need to work 112 more days to catch up with men's wages at the end of December if full-time work starts on January 1. In Norway, where the pay gap is smaller, the number of days is 17 days.
The factors that contribute to the pay gap are complex. Kazuo Yamaguchi, a professor at the University of Chicago in the United States, said that "the reason is that in addition to management positions, there are fewer women working in high-paying professional positions such as doctors and lawyers." For example, 21 percent of doctors in Japan are among the lowest in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Many positions, such as childcare workers, account for more than 90% of the jobs, earn less than the national average (4.87 million yen) in Japan.
In addition, although the employment rate for women in Japan has reached 70%, the proportion of unstable and often lower-paid informal employment is 54%, which is higher than that of men by 22%, further widening the wage gap.
The larger the wage gap between men and women, the lower the productivity of labour. If an environment where women's capacities cannot be developed and where there is a pay gap is ignored, it could undermine economic development.
【Hong Kong has been ranked first in the world's most unaffordable property prices for 12 consecutive years, and it takes 23.2 years to buy a house without eating or drinking]
Reuters reported on the 8th that the latest survey released by Demographia, an international public policy advisory agency, shows that Hong Kong, China, has ranked first among the most difficult cities in the world for property prices for the 12th consecutive year, and the affordability has further deteriorated, and the house price-to-income ratio has risen from 20.7 in the previous year to 23.2, leaving Sydney ( 15.3 ) , Australia, which rose to second place.
The survey compares the housing burden ratios of 92 major markets (metropolitan areas) in eight countries based on house prices and incomes as of the third quarter of 2021, i.e. the median house prices in a city divided by the median annual household income, the greater the value, the worse the affordability. According to the latest figures in Hong Kong, it means that a family must eat or drink for 23.2 years to be able to afford a house.
According to Demographia's latest survey, Hong Kong's index is severely unaffordable, with Sydney, which ranked third last year, replacing Vancouver in second place with a house price-to-income ratio of 13.3.
Hong Kong's latest index is 2.4 percent higher than it was in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, and about half of the increase came from a decline in household income, the report said.
As for Pittsburgh in the United States, it is the city with the best property price affordability among the 92 markets covered by the survey, with a house price-to-income ratio of 2.7; Oklahoma City and Rochester in the United States are the second most affordable cities with a house price-to-income ratio of 3.3.
After hitting a record high of 398.1 in September last year, Hong Kong's private residential property price index fell for many consecutive months due to the ravages of the new crown variant virus and the start of the United States to reduce debt buying, but it still rose 3.3% for the whole of 2021, rising for 13 consecutive years. The property price index in January fell 1.14% month-on-month, the lowest in 11 months.
【Samsung Electronics may be claimed for forcing the game optimizer to run the new machine】
Yonhap News Agency reported on the 8th that according to the South Korean legal community, due to the mandatory operation of the "Game Optimization Service" (GOS) program by Samsung Electronics Galaxy S22 series flagship mobile phones, some consumers who purchased the series of models intend to file a class action lawsuit against Samsung Electronics.
Game optimization services are programs that reduce the rendering resolution by adjusting the performance of the graphics processing unit (GPU) when the mobile phone is running software such as high-compute games, thereby reducing the computational burden and preventing the phone from overheating. Samsung Electronics also carried this program on the previous Galaxy series of smartphones, but users who want to run high-computing games can use a paid app to force it off. However, the Galaxy S22 series models are forced to carry the program through the "One UI 4.0" system upgrade, resulting in users being unable to continue to use paid apps to turn it off.
Some consumers with high demand for computing volume are dissatisfied with this, saying that they have been deceived by the fake advertising of the Galaxy S22. Consumers interested in filing class-action claims have set up online communities to recruit plaintiffs and rated each plaintiff's claim at 300,000 won (about 1,533 yuan).
[London Metal Exchange (LME) suspends nickel trading after price soars to $100,000]
Reuters reported that the London Metal Exchange (LME) suspended nickel trading on the 8th, after the price of nickel doubled in just a few hours to a record level of $100,000 per ton. After Western sanctions threatened supplies from russia, a major producer, there was a race to make up for it.
The rare move underscores the market panic caused by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, where buyers scramble to buy the metal, which is essential for making stainless steel and electric car batteries. Not only does Russia supply about 10% of the world's nickel, but Russia's Nornickel is the world's largest supplier of battery-grade nickel, accounting for 15%-20% of global supply.
The LME said it was considering a few days of closure for reasons of market order.
LME raised the margin requirement for nickel contracts by 12.5 percent to $2,250 per tonne, effective from the 8th, and suspended nickel trading at all venues at least for the remainder of the day.
"The LME will actively plan to reopen the nickel market and will announce the relevant mechanism to the market as soon as possible."
On the 8th, the price of LME's three-month nickel soared nearly 111% to $101,365 per ton, after which LME stopped trading in its electronic systems and open outcry trading.
Today's picture
(Source: Visual China)
【International Women's Day is coming, Afghan women sell flowers on the street】
On March 8, 2022, local time, Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, on the occasion of International Women's Day, local women sold flowers on the streets on rainy days.
(This article is compiled from Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Reuters, Yonhap News Agency)
(Economic Observation Network intern reporter Zhou Yuqing sorted out)