How to Read Job Postings [IT Engineer Edition]: Understanding Expected Annual Salary, Fixed Overtime Pay, and 'Scope of Change'
Read the previous article here
This is the second part of the series.
I actually read and counted 161 IT-related job postings.
Out of those, 41 mentioned something about fixed overtime pay.
And only 2 allowed me to determine what the base salary was.
The remaining 39 were written in a style like 'Monthly salary 290,000 to 420,000 yen (including 45 hours of fixed overtime).' You have to decide whether to apply for these jobs without knowing what the base salary is.
In the previous article, I wrote that there is no point in chasing job titles, and what you should follow is 'what responsibilities the job entails.' So, where is that written? The answer is the job posting.
And what must be written in a job posting is determined by law.
This is written for people like this
Those who are concerned about the line in job postings that says 'Scope of change: Duties determined by the company'
Those who find the range of expected annual salary too wide and don't know where they would fall
Those who are unsure about what they can ask and how much they can ask before applying
By the time you finish reading, my goal is for you to know where to look in a job posting and what to ask before an interview.
The conclusion in 3 lines first
As of April 2024, job postings are required to state the 'scope of change'
However, in private media, even when written, the content was almost always boilerplate text
Expected annual salary is in a state where 'the amount is shown, but the breakdown is not.' You have no choice but to ask for the breakdown yourself
What must be written in a job posting is determined by law
First, let's confirm the premise. A job posting is not an advertisement that a company can write however they like.
When recruiting workers through advertisements, including the internet and social media, it is necessary to display six items: the name or title of the recruiter, address, contact information, job description, place of work, and wages. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has clearly stated that failure to include these is a violation of the law.
On top of that, three items were added that must be clearly stated as of April 2024. This is due to the revision of the Ordinance for Enforcement of the Employment Security Act, and the three points are: (1) the scope of changes to the duties to be engaged in, (2) the scope of changes to the place of work, and (3) the criteria for renewing fixed-term employment contracts (including the total contract period or the upper limit on the number of renewals).
This 'scope of change' is the main subject of this article.
According to the leaflet from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, it is defined as the scope of changes during the contract period, including not only immediately after hiring but also future prospects such as future reassignments.
In other words, this is essentially a section that states 'what you might be asked to do after joining the company'..
Examples provided by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare include '(Immediately after hiring) Accounting → (Scope of change) Legal affairs duties' and '(Immediately after hiring) Corporate sales → (Scope of change) All company duties excluding manufacturing duties'.
There is an important point to note here. Just because the scope of change is not written in a recruitment advertisement does not necessarily mean it is immediately illegal. Due to advertising space constraints, it is permitted to attach a note saying 'Details will be provided during the interview' and then clearly state all working conditions by the time of the first contact with the job seeker, such as during the interview. In the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's Q&A, the view is also expressed that forms such as showing only the status immediately after hiring without writing the scope of change for the place of work, or stating wages as '1,500 yen per hour and up', are not immediately considered violations, although they are subject to individual judgment.
Therefore, please do not jump to the conclusion that it is 'illegal' just because you find a job posting that does not state it.Instead, assume that you can ask about everything by the time of the interview. The law guarantees that.
In reality, it was 'duties determined by the company'
So, how is it written in actual job postings? I counted 161 IT-related job postings.
I will also present the numbers in text. Hello Work 97% (29 out of 30), type 80% (24 out of 30), Rikunabi NEXT 27% (7 out of 26), Green 8% (2 out of 26), and doda, En Tenshoku, and Wantedly were 0%.
However, the real discovery was not the inclusion rate. The 31 cases that had a statement in private media were, without exception, standard comprehensive wording. For example, 'All company duties excluding the above duties', 'All duties within the company', or 'All various duties at our company'. In one medium, 21 out of 24 cases used the exact same wording word for word.
In other words, job postings that state 'Scope of change: Duties determined by the company' are in a state where it is written according to the system, but you understand nothing even if you read it.
This is not a problem of the job seeker's reading comprehension.
On the other hand, Hello Work had varied content. Of the 29 cases that had a statement, 14 (about half) limited it to 'No change', 7 were comprehensive, and 3 had limitations such as 'Possibility of change within duties as an IT engineer'.
Hello Work was the only one among those surveyed where nearly half of the cases clearly stated limitations.
In practice, think of it this way 'Duties determined by the company' is not a lie, but it is not information either. When you see this line, do not read it as 'there is a possibility of reassignment', but read it as 'nothing is known yet', and ask for specific names during the interview. Just doing that makes it easier to handle.
Deconstructing the contents of '290,000 yen monthly salary'
The other main subject is wages.
According to the guidelines based on the Youth Employment Promotion Act, when including fixed overtime pay, it is required to clearly state three things together.1) The amount of basic salary excluding fixed overtime pay, 2) The number of hours and amount of fixed overtime pay, and 3) The fact that additional premium wages will be paid for hours exceeding that time are the three points.
The numbers I surveyed were like this. Out of 60 cases from two private media outlets, 41 mentioned something about fixed overtime pay. 23 had the three-piece set.And out of 41 cases, only 2 allowed me to read the basic salary excluding fixed overtime pay.
I will also provide the distribution of the 30 cases where the number of fixed overtime hours could be read. 20 hours in 6 cases, 30 hours in 5 cases, 45 hours in 3 cases, 35 hours in 2 cases, and the rest were 1 case each for 40, 25, 17, 16, 12, 8, 7, and 5 hours.The longest was 45 hours worth, which is the same number of hours as the general upper limit for overtime work under the 36 Agreement.
In contrast, Hello Work job postings display wages broken down into basic salary, fixed allowances, fixed overtime pay, and other allowances. Furthermore, the monthly average overtime hours were listed in all 30 cases (average 13.9 hours, minimum 4 hours, maximum 25 hours). Bonuses also show actual results in the form of 'Total 2.50 months (previous year's results)'.
Even when looking for the same job, the amount of information you get varies significantly depending on the medium. That is the reality.
There was also a difference in the salary range. Media that display annual salary had an average range of 2.26 times (lower limit 3.82 million yen, upper limit 8.56 million yen), while media that display monthly salary had an average of 1.67 times. There is a clear trend that media listing annual salary have wider ranges. Some had a maximum range of 4 times.
The upper limit amount is, in many cases, not the amount offered to you.
5 Things to Check Before Applying or Interviewing
I will now put what we have covered so far into a ready-to-use format.
I will also provide the content in text form.
Scope of change: It says 'duties determined by the company,' but which departments are actually subject to potential transfers?
Basic salary: What is the basic salary excluding fixed overtime pay?
Fixed overtime: How many hours does this cover, and what is the amount? Is there additional pay for hours worked beyond this?
Actual overtime: What is the recent monthly average of overtime work?
Basis for the range: What experience or grade level corresponds to the upper limit of the offered range?
These five are questions you are allowed to ask. The first three are items that are required to be clearly stated in the first place. The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare's leaflet even includes an example entry of 'Overtime work: Yes (monthly average 20 hours).' You are not forcing out information that is difficult to ask for; you are simply confirming what should have been written there originally.
However, realizing that the conditions do not match after proceeding to the interview stage is a waste of time for both parties. If you want to clarify the conditions before applying, one method is to involve someone who is in a position to confirm directly with the company. The practical benefit of using an agent lies here; it is not so much for seeing private job listings, but rather for filling in the parts not written in the job posting before applying. You can use them for information gathering even before you decide whether or not to change jobs.
[IT High-Class Career Change / Free Consultation]
Where to Consult When Things Still Don't Match Up
I have also organized the contact points for cases where you find that 'the story is different from what I was told' after joining the company or during the selection process.
The content of a job found at Hello Work was different from reality → Hello Work Job Hotline (03-6858-8609 / Daily 8:30-17:15, excluding year-end and New Year holidays). After confirming the facts, corrective guidance will be issued to the company.
The explanation via a recruitment agent was insufficient / I felt the display on the job site was strange → Supply and Demand Adjustment Business Division/Office, Employment Security Department of the Prefectural Labor Bureau
Conditions were different after joining, or wages were not paid → Labor Standards Inspection Office, General Labor Consultation Corner
One note of caution: The Job Hotline covers jobs that are published and introduced at Hello Work.
Job postings found on private job sites are not covered, so those should be directed to the Labor Bureau. Since more people use private media for IT job changes, this is a common point of confusion.
Japanese job postings: 'The amount is shown, but the details are not'
Finally, let's compare this with overseas.
In the EU, a pay transparency directive will be applied in each country starting in June 2026, requiring employers to inform applicants of the starting salary or salary range before the job posting or interview. It is also prohibited to ask applicants about their past salary history. In New York and California in the U.S., there is also an obligation to indicate a compensation range when recruiting. Even so, as of September 2024, the percentage of U.S. job postings that included wage information was about 58%.
What Western countries are doing now is 'making them disclose the amount in the first place.' In that respect, Japanese job postings are already ahead. In our actual survey, the expected annual salary range was written in almost all job postings.
Japan's challenge lies elsewhere.The amount is shown, but the breakdown is not. It is unclear who the upper limit of the range applies to, and it is unknown how many hours of overtime pay are included in the monthly salary. Job seekers cannot find the base salary unless they do the subtraction themselves. This is a different kind of opacity than in the West.
Summary
The reason job postings are hard to read is not because you don't know how to read them.It is because what should be written is rounded into boilerplate text and total amounts.
However, the fact that it is rounded also means that the original items are fixed. The scope of change, base salary, number of hours and amount of fixed overtime, treatment of excess, and average monthly overtime hours. These five items are required by law to be 'clearly stated.'If it is not written in the job posting, you can ask before the interview.
Next time, we will cover the conditions written in the job posting, such as '3+ years of experience' and 'Senior Engineer wanted.' There is no official definition for junior, middle, and senior, but there are commonalities in what companies look at when drawing the line.
If you want to follow the scope covered in this article in a more systematic way, a book is faster.
"Career Change for IT Engineers"
This is the book to read if you want to systematically grasp IT engineer career changes and career design in one volume.
If you want to organize your thoughts on a longer-term career regardless of your job type, look here.
Read next
What determines the difference between junior, middle, and senior? | Years of experience and implementation skills (Part 3)
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Primary sources referenced
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare 'Rules for clearly stating working conditions to job seekers are changing!' (Leaflet for employment placement agencies)
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: 'From April 2024, additional items must be clearly stated at the time of recruitment, etc.'
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: 'Six pieces of information must be displayed in job advertisements for workers' and Q&A for recruiters (regarding Article 5-4 of the Employment Security Act)
Guidelines based on the Youth Employment Promotion Act (Clear statement of fixed overtime pay)
Hello Work Internet Service: 'Hello Work Job Posting Hotline'
European Commission: 'New EU rules on pay transparency explained' (June 2026)
Public job posting pages on recruitment media: 161 cases in total (retrieved August 11–12, 2026)