United States
Latest Average Wage
+2.1% · 5 years
$86,977
Country Comparison
United States vs Japan
Compare average wages, long-term wage changes and eight consumer price categories using OECD data.
At a Glance
United States
vs
Japan
$86,9772025
Latest Average Wage
United States +73.3%
(vs Japan)
$50,1832025
+2.1%2025
5-Year Wage Change
United States +4.3 pts
(vs Japan)
−2.2%2025
+13.0%2025
10-Year Wage Change
United States +14.6 pts
(vs Japan)
−1.6%2025
1002024
Overall Price Level
United States +40.8 index points
(vs Japan)
59.22024
Wages are PPP-adjusted average annual wages; price levels use the United States reference of 100. Years shown are each country's latest reported observation.
How Wages Have Changed
Follow PPP-adjusted average annual wages in constant prices across both economies.
USD PPP, constant prices · missing years shown as gaps, never interpolated
Japan
Latest Average Wage
−2.2% · 5 years
$50,183
Wage Milestones
United States
10 Years Ago
$76,999 (2015)
Historical Peak
$86,977 (2025)
Latest Wage
$86,977 (2025)
Japan
10 Years Ago
$51,027 (2015)
Historical Peak
$52,662 (1997)
Latest Wage
$50,183 (2025)
Compare Everyday Price Levels
See how eight consumer price categories compare with the United States reference value of 100.
United States = 100 · Differences shown in index points
United States (USA)Japan (JPN)
Overall
+40.8 index points
100
100vs59.2
Food
−12.0 index points
100
100vs112
Clothing
+29.0 index points
100
100vs71
Housing
+51.5 index points
100
100vs48.5
Health
+66.1 index points
100
100vs33.9
Transport
+15.6 index points
100
100vs84.4
Recreation
+21.6 index points
100
100vs78.4
Restaurants & Accommodation
+27.4 index points
100
100vs72.6
What Stands Out
01
Latest Wage Gap
United States' latest average wage is $86,977 for 2025, about 73.3% higher than Japan's $50,183 for 2025 — computed straight from the two reported values. Per year, that works out to roughly $36,794 on the shared purchasing-power basis.
02
Stronger Recent Trend
On the latest one-year change, United States shows the stronger movement at +1.7%, against −0.5% for Japan. The five-year horizon keeps the same ordering: +2.1% against −2.2%. Both percentages are real, PPP-adjusted changes from the reported wage series.
03
Largest Price Gap
Health shows the widest price gap of the comparable categories in 2024: 100 for United States against 33.9 for Japan. United States sits on the higher side of that 66.1-point spread; Japan reads 66.1 index points lower on the US=100 scale. The gap is stated in index points, which are not interchangeable with percentages.
04
Closest Price Category
The closest category is Food: United States reads 100 and Japan 112 for 2024, just 12.0 index points apart on the US=100 scale. The next closest is Transport at 15.6 index points apart. A gap this small leaves the category effectively tied on the shared US=100 scale.
Understanding the Comparison
Wage Position
The wage levels in this pairing are far apart: United States reports $86,977 for 2025, while Japan reports $50,183 for 2025. The higher figure exceeds the lower one by 73.3% in relative terms — a percentage calculated from the two reported values — or roughly $36,794 a year. No extra conversion is needed here: each figure is already a purchasing-power-adjusted annual amount in constant prices. For scale, neither series has moved by that much within any single reported year, so the gap is structural rather than the product of one unusual observation. Over ten years United States recorded +13.0% against Japan's −1.6%, so the current levels were reached on visibly different long-term paths.
Wage Direction
The two wage series are currently moving in opposite directions, and the separation between them is growing. United States sits at the highest point of its series — $86,977 in 2025 is also the historical peak, with a ten-year change of +13.0%. Japan continues to drift below its peak, with a one-year change of −0.5% and a five-year change of −2.2%. United States is the side gaining in real terms (+2.1% over five years), while Japan records −2.2%, so the five-year measures point away from each other instead of converging. Each percentage is a real, PPP-adjusted change; nominal pay movements are outside what this dataset reports.
Price Profile
United States' overall consumer price level for 2024 reads 100, and Japan's reads 59.2, each measured against the United States reference of 100. One side of this pairing dominates the price profile: United States sits higher in 7 of the 8 comparable categories. Health separates the two most: United States reads 100 and Japan 33.9, 66.1 index points apart. The two sit closest in Food (100 versus 112), only 12.0 index points apart. Counted against the US reference of 100, 0 of United States' 8 reported categories sit above the line, against 1 of Japan's 8. These are index values for 2024, not currency amounts; categories without a reported value on either side are left out of the comparison.
Wage and price data should not be combined into a verdict on which country is better to live in.
