The House of Representatives approved revisions Tuesday to the Unemployment Insurance Law, raising the premium to 1.6 percent from 1.4 percent of employee pay and slashing benefits for high-income earners.
The legislation will go into force May 1 after approval by the House of Councilors.
The new insurance premium is scheduled to take effect April 1, 2005. Contributions to unemployment insurance are split 50-50 by employer and employee. Under the revised law, benefit payments to unemployed workers who earned high wages will be lowered to between 50 percent and 80 percent of their monthly pay.
Workers are currently entitled to between 60 percent and 80 percent of their pay when they lose their jobs. The maximum daily allowance will be capped at 8,040 yen, down from 10,608 yen under the current law.
Allowances for job training, such as tuition fees for computer classes, would be slashed from a maximum 80 percent to 40 percent of expenses, with the upper limit set at 200,000 yen, down from 300,000 yen.