Working hours for side jobs and dual employment are combined: premium wages, upper limits and the management modelHours from your main job and your side job are counted together
Under Article 38, paragraph 1 of the Labor Standards Act, working hours are combined even when the employers are different. Scheduled working hours are added in the order the contracts were made, and hours outside the schedule are added in the order the overtime was actually worked. When the combined total exceeds the statutory working hours, your company's overtime requires an Article 36 Agreement (the labor-management agreement on overtime) and premium wages. A simple method called the "management model" is available.
- 1. TrackTrack hours worked at the side job, for example through self-reporting
- 2. CombineAdd scheduled hours in contract order and hours outside the schedule in the order they occurred
- 3. JudgeIdentify your company's share of hours above the statutory limit in the combined total
- 4. PayYour company's share of overtime requires an Article 36 Agreement and premium wages
Key points
- Keep the combined hours within the upper limits on overtime (less than 100 hours in a single month, and an average of 80 hours or less over multiple months).
- Under the management model, an upper limit is set for each company so that the total of the earlier company's hours beyond the statutory limit and the later company's working hours stays within the limit.
- After the management model is introduced, the company that made its contract later pays premium wages for all of its own working hours as hours beyond the statutory limit.
- Health checkups, interviews with guidance for long-hours workers, and stress checks must be carried out whether or not the worker has a side job.
- Article 70 of the model rules of employment has been revised from a permission system to a notification system.
What to do in practice
- Decide on a notification system for side jobs and on how to track combined working hours (self-reporting or the management model).
- Review the side-job provisions in your rules of employment.
When you work for more than one company, the hours of the two jobs are added up. If the total goes over 8 hours a day, the extra time counts as "overtime" and extra pay is given for it. The result of this addition also affects how your pay is calculated and the rules that protect you from working too much.
- Main job
- 5 hours
- + Side job
- 4 hours
- - Standard for one day
- 8 hours
- Hours counted as overtime
- 1 hour
Points
- Even if the jobs are at different companies, the hours you work are counted together
- Working too long in total is bad for your body, so there is an upper limit
- First, it is important to tell your company how much you have worked, too
What the words mean
- Combining hours (tsusan)
- Adding up the hours of two or more jobs and counting them as one
- Side job (fukugyo / kengyo)
- Having another job besides your main job
- Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW): Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Check Your Working Conditions - Side Jobs, Dual Employment and Working Conditions
This article summarizes and explains materials published by government agencies and is not advice on any individual case. Rules can change, so for actual procedures and decisions always check the latest original materials and consult professionals such as tax accountants or labor and social security attorneys. English, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese versions are translations prepared from the Japanese articles for convenience. If anything differs, the Japanese text and the original source take precedence.