Companies are legally required to employ a certain number of workers with disabilities based on the Act to Facilitate the Employment of Persons with Disabilities. The number of disabled workers to be employed is determined by the legal employment rate of disabled workers, which is calculated based on the ratio of applicable workers with disabilities to the number of all employees. The legal employment rate is renewed every five years by considering the trend of the rates. The current rate was set in April 2023. This article explains further about the legal employment rate of disabled workers.
[1] Legal employment rate of disabled workers
The legal employment rate of disabled workers for private companies has been raised from 2.3% to 2.7% in April 2023. Because of the significant increase, however, a one-year moratorium was set, allowing companies to make preparations for hiring disabled workers. The government plans to raise the rate to 2.5% in April 2024 first, and to 2.7% in July 2026.
Currently, companies with 43.5 employees or more are required to employ at lease one disabled worker. This will change to companies with 40.0 employees or more, when the legal employment rate is increased to 2.5%. Similarly, when the rate is raised to 2.7%, firms with 37.5 employees or more will have to have at least one disable worker.
[2] Lowering of the exclusion rate
Industries in which employing disabled workers is generally considered difficult, such as construction, road transport, and medical services, may use an exclusion rate. A figure reached by applying the exclusion rate can be deducted from the number of regular employees in determining the number of disabled workers to be employed. The exclusion rate has been lowered in phases since April 2004 and is to be eliminated altogether in the future. It will be reduced by 10 percentage points from April 2025.
Currently, nine industries, including nonferrous metal (excluding nonferrous primary refining), warehousing, air transport, and mining of raw materials for ceramics (limited to materials for fireproof objects, earthenware, glass and cement), are using an exclusion rate between 5% and 10%, but they will no longer be applicable after the lowering in April 2025. Meanwhile, three industries, namely, security services, long-term care health facilities and long-term care homes, will become applicable to the exclusion rate.
[3] Inclusion of short-timers in the calculation of mandatory employment rate
Currently, employees who work 20 hours or more per week are included in the calculation of the mandatory employment rate of disabled workers. From April 2024, employees with severe disabilities, severe intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses who work at least 10 hours and less than 20 hours per week will be included in the calculation as part of the measure to increase employment opportunities.
Companies should examine if they need to revise their recruitment plan after the increase in mandatory employment rate and understand how many workers with disabilities they must hire.
Reference
Labour Ministry “Increase in the mandatory employment of disabled workers and strengthening of support measures”
