Record profit earns Toyota exco salary increases

Japan’s Toyota, the country’s largest employer and the biggest automaker in the world has decided to lift executive payments by 20 percent as the company reported record profit for the past fiscal year.

Aside from external board members, Toyota will increase the salaries to an average of 54.6 million yen ($458,000) for 14 of its directors for the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2015.

There is also an average bonus payment increase of 45 percent to 73.8 million yen to 12 officials, though the latter still needs to be approved by the attendees of the annual shareholders’ meeting set to take place next month.

Toyota’s move to boost salaries for the top management level comes after the company said its fiscal year net income rose 19 percent to 2.17 trillion yen. Additionally, the positive result will continue into the current fiscal year, with profit forecasted to jump to 2.25 trillion as Akio Toyoda, the president has lifted efficiency, introduced major overhauls for key models such as the Camry sedan and boosted the Lexus brand’s appeal on the US luxury market, the world’s largest.

Toyota has also rewarded its workers by lifting the base monthly earnings of unionized employees by 4,000 yen ($34) starting with April, the largest salary update since back in 1993 – though the increase was still just on third of the proposed amount coming from the company’s labour union.

While Toyoda heads the biggest automaker in the world, the best-paid executive of a Japanese company remains Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive officer of second-largest Japanese automaker Nissan. In Nigeria, Toyota has consistently remained the highest selling automotive brand for many years.