[The Cruel Truth] The net pay trap that people who are happy about a '10,000 yen raise' don't know. Why can't the ace of a traditional Japanese company ever become wealthy?

Spring salary review meetings and winter bonus assessments.

When your boss tells you,

have you ever experienced a moment where you felt like pumping your fist in the air?

The glorious 'S rating' and '10,000 yen raise' you earned by sacrificing your weekends, working overtime until late at night, and enduring unreasonable office politics.

This will make life a little easier.
Let's go eat something delicious.
The moment you see your pay stub the following month after thinking that, you should feel a sense of unease.

Wait... My salary went up by 10,000 yen, but my take-home pay only increased by a few thousand yen.

The true nature of the unease you felt at this moment.

That is the perfect and cruel 'system bug' designed to keep Japanese salarymen as 'caged livestock' that can never quit for their entire lives.

This time, I will explain why a diligent ace employee at a traditional Japanese company can never become wealthy, not from the rules of a narrow organization like a company, but from the macro perspective of 'taxes and social insurance premiums' set by the government.

I will start with the conclusion.

Aiming for the upper-mass segment (30 million yen in assets) solely through the 'addition' of labor income is mathematically broken.

The silent killer known as 'Standard Monthly Remuneration'

Why does your take-home pay only increase by a few thousand yen even if your base salary goes up by 10,000 yen?

The biggest reason for this lies in the increase in the standard monthly remuneration bracket (increase in social insurance premiums) and progressive taxation. lies in.

In Japan, social insurance premiums (health insurance, employees' pension, etc.) are based on the average salary from April to June, which determines a bracket called 'standard monthly remuneration,' and the deduction amount is set from the autumn of that year to the summer of the following year.

What is cruel is that this bracket is 'stair-stepped'.

Suppose you worked desperately and raised your base salary by 10,000 yen, but unfortunately, you moved up one step on this 'bracket staircase'.
Then, the amount deducted for social insurance premiums will jump significantly.

Furthermore, income tax and the following year's resident tax will mercilessly attack the increased gross amount.

As a result, social insurance premiums, income tax, and resident tax are deducted from your 10,000 yen raise, and what remains in your hands is effectively reduced to about 5,000 to 6,000 yen.

A few thousand yen a month. It's an amount that doesn't even cover the cost of a single night out drinking.

Did you sacrifice your sleep and give yourself a stomachache from stress just to snatch that "S-rating" for this few thousand yen?

The "punishment game" accelerates as your annual income rises

"No, it's only a few thousand yen now because I'm still young, but it should get easier once I get promoted and my annual income reaches 8 million or 10 million yen."

There are many pure-hearted ace employees who believe this without a doubt.
However, the reality is even crueler.
Because Japan's tax system uses a "progressive tax" structure, the more your annual income rises, the heavier the "penalty" known as the tax rate becomes.

The increase in take-home pay when someone with an annual income of 5 million yen reaches 6 million yen is completely different from the increase when someone with an annual income of 8 million yen reaches 9 million yen.
The latter will have an overwhelmingly higher percentage taken away by taxes.

Furthermore, in a JTC, as your annual income rises, you are promoted to "management." What awaits you here is a fatal trap called a total cut in overtime pay.

Even if your gross salary appears to have increased, overtime pay disappears, tax rates rise, and your responsibilities and working hours increase without limit.
If you look at it in terms of "effective hourly wage," there are countless managers who are clearly making less than they were when they were regular employees.

The government exploits you through taxes and social insurance premiums, and the company exploits your time through invisible rewards like "fulfillment" and "job titles."

Within this perfect pincer system, no matter how hard you row the oars, the leaky boat you are on will never turn into a golden cruise ship.

People who notice the bug in the system choose a "B-rating"

People who understand the cruel rules of capitalism and the bugs in Japan's tax system are the first to realize how poor the cost-performance (the worst Sharpe ratio) of this "game of aiming for an S-rating" is.

That is why wise people choose "quiet quitting."

They stop dedicating their lives to the company to get an S-rating and working to increase the taxes and social insurance premiums they pay the following year.

They defend a "B-rating" at all costs and reclaim their own time and mental health by leaving work on time.

Then, they treat the salary they get from the company as a "basic income to stabilize their life" and give up on chasing excessive labor income (overtime pay or meager raises) beyond that.

So, where do they direct their freed-up time and energy?

There is only one answer: "their own business," where the tax rules are completely different, and "investments," which bring non-linear growth.

The addition of labor income will continue to be skimmed off by the government and the company.

However, as per the absolute rule of capitalism, "r > g" (rate of return on capital > economic growth rate), the returns from asset management far exceed the speed of salary increases through labor.

Break free from additive labor and regain control in one fell swoop

If you are currently

"Why doesn't my bank balance ever increase, even though I'm working so hard?"

If you are feeling this kind of despair, please change your "battlefield," not your "way of working," right now.

Let's end the effort to get a salary increase today.

What you should be aiming for is not to get perfect marks on your company's evaluation sheet, but to build your own fortress outside the company.

Investing a few tens of thousands of yen into the S&P 500 every month and enduring it for decades. That might be one correct answer.
However, to escape the suffocating labor of this very moment as quickly as possible and regain control of your life, there must be a period where you take risks.

If you wish to escape the trap of additive labor (meager raises) and turn your situation around starting from a small amount, please read the following articles.

▼ How to improve your situation from a small amount and regain control of your life in one fell swoop

👉How an ordinary office worker can reach the upper-mass layer from a small amount in "one fell swoop" | note

▼ Click here if you want to cover the full scope of the hack's survival strategy (earning, protecting, and increasing)

👉[Complete Set] The "Survival Strategy" Complete Pack for Ordinary Office Workers | note