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INTEREST: MediBang Responds to Allegations Regarding Low Translation Pay Rates

This seems more like a poor attempt at damage control rather than actual reassurance, as stated in the article itself their is a lot of red flags you can notice in terms of what is actually stipulated in the contract and not a lot of direct assurance or targets that can guide beginners who start working could opt for advancement and increase pay rise, not even a guarantee.

Thespacemaster wrote:

This seems more like a poor attempt at damage control rather than actual reassurance, as stated in the article itself their is a lot of red flags you can notice in terms of what is actually stipulated in the contract and not a lot of direct assurance or targets that can guide beginners who start working could opt for advancement and increase pay rise, not even a guarantee.

Agreed. They even contradict themselves--their followup statement claims they have different employees for lettering, redrawing, cleaning, etc.--yet the original offer certainly seemed to demand all of that work for a measly 120 yen. If you ask me they put their foot in their mouth even worse this time. That level of pay is just insulting.

As for the livable wage angle. I don't believe that it's fair to call a livable wage "weasel words", but I think Guile raises some good points. How exactly would a "living wage" solve this problem? Obviously nobody is talking about mansions and private jets but the basic cost of living varies widely around the world. Should a translator living in Manhattan be paid more than one living in Delhi even though they may have equal skill? Where exactly is this measurement to set a living wage taken? Wherever you choose to take it it puts some people at a disadvantage over others: if it's an average fixed rate period then people living in expensive areas aren't receiving enough while people living in areas with low costs of living are overpaid. If it's set locally then firms will simply choose not to hire people living in high cost-of-living areas and will favor those living in places with lower costs. And despite the fact that the idea sounds great on the surface--it sure would be nice if everyone could live comfortably doing what they want to do--the economic reality does not back it up. A fixed "living wage" creates a floor in the value of labor. That floor must be higher than the equilibrium wage (what people are paid without a "living wage" or minimum) otherwise it's pointless to even have such a policy at all. That difference between the two becomes unemployment. The higher you set the floor (living wage) over the equilibrium the more unemployment you get. In the case of translating manga that would likely mean that those few translators lucky enough (or skilled enough) to be hired for big-name titles would receive a pay raise while niche titles would simply be dropped and nobody gets hired to translate them.