The Retirement Pension Plan
The Bayer retirement pension Plan is a defined contribution-style pension system. The
basic plan is a pension plan designed based on the state Defined Contribution Pension Law, with the
company transferring 6% of the employee’s basic monthly salary into the individual’s pension
account as a pension installment each month. Upon retirement, the accumulated assets can be
received as a one-off retirement payment or as a retirement pension. Until the age of 60, the
employee determines how to manage the pension fund in their account. There are no less than
20 management categories including principal-guaranteed bank deposits, insurance company
accumulated pension types and investment trusts that manage funds using shares and
bonds. Employees manage their own funds choosing from above menu. As a model
case, an employee who enters the company as a new graduate from university could raise a final sum
of about \28 million by managing such funds at an annual rate of 1%.
This system is one that employees can enter optionally for post-retirement asset
formation. Under this system, employees accumulate a fixed installment paid by automatic
deductions from monthly salary and receive the accumulated funds after retirement. The funds
are managed choosing a method from the dedicated management menu prepared in the same way as for
the basic plan. There is also a matching contribution of one-third of the employee’s monthly
installments that the company pays as a subsidy to the employee’s salary. For example, if an
employee with a basic annual salary of 6 million yen contributes 15,000 yen per month as the
installment from his or her salary, the employee would be paid one-third of that sum, 5,000 yen
monthly or 60,000 yen annually, as a subsidy. (However, the company subsidy is limited to a
maximum of 1% of the employee’s basic annual salary.)