NEC hikes starting pay over $90,000, putting skills before seniority

Japan hard-pressed to lure tech talent as Silicon Valley offers six-figure sums

NEC's Tokyo headquarters: The Japanese electronics group is breaking with traditional seniority-based pay scales. (Photo by Shinya Sawai)

KOSUKE SHIMIZU, Nikkei staff writer

July 10, 2019 05:06 JST

TOKYO -- Japanese technology group NEC will offer qualified new hires annual pay of over 10 million yen ($92,000) in an effort to compete for top research and engineering talent with the likes of Google and Facebook, Nikkei has learned.

This new market-based approach to compensation, a break from traditional seniority-based pay among old-line Japanese corporations, will start in October.