Survey on Business Person Awareness and Reality of Employee Benefits: A 66,000 Yen Annual Gap Due to Benefits Literacy

Benefit One Inc. (Headquarters: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; President and Representative Director: Kazuyuki Hanyu), a provider of employee benefit outsourcing services, conducted a survey titled "Survey on Business Person Awareness and Reality of Employee Benefits" targeting 1,000 men and women in their 20s to 60s working as regular employees in private companies.

Amidst historic price hikes and declining real wages, interest in proactive systems to protect take-home pay, such as NISA, iDeCo, and hometown tax donation (furusato nozei), is increasing annually. While corporate wage increase efforts are also intensifying, many employees and management feel a sense of limitation regarding available resources. Against this backdrop, corporate 'employee benefits' are being revisited as a means to protect employees' daily lives.

However, the survey highlights a significant gap between awareness and action: while 88.0% of business people recognize benefits as 'necessary knowledge for daily life' to gain advantages, only 16.1% feel they are utilizing them sufficiently. While those who do utilize them achieve an average monthly savings of 5,513 yen (approximately 66,000 yen annually), many remain unable to receive these benefits. This reality underscores the necessity of 'benefits literacy'—the ability to wisely utilize these systems to increase actual take-home pay.

From 'Occasional Leisure' to 'Daily Cost Reduction'! ● Among benefits used in the past year, 'leisure-based' benefits accounted for about 30% (27.4%), while 'cost-reduction-based' benefits accounted for about 50% (45.4%), indicating a trend toward 'living defense' utilization. ● By generation, for 'cost-reduction' benefits, the usage rate was about 60% for those in their 20s (59.5%), compared to about 30% (26.5%) for those in their 50s, showing that younger generations use them more as daily saving tools.

Don't Miss Out! 'Benefits Literacy' Determines 66,000 Yen in Annual Savings ● Those who utilize the system report an average monthly savings of 5,513 yen. ● About 90% (88.2%) realize that 'benefits are a system where knowing more means benefiting more.' ● Meanwhile, over 40% (41.2%) of all respondents answered they are 'not utilizing them.'

Modern Employees Seek 'Living Defense' Over 'Unique Perks' ● Over 80% (84.4%) selected 'living defense' benefits—such as 'meal subsidies,' 'housing subsidies,' and 'utility/communication subsidies'—as benefits they would like to have in the future. ● Only about 10% sought unique perks such as 'support for fandom activities' or 'beauty subsidies.' ● Daily life support is a higher priority for business people than unique perks.