The Japanese Automobile Dealers Association reportedly says Japan’s domestic vehicle sales fell to a 35-year low in 2007.

But despite falling vehicle sales in Japan, union autoworkers there received pay raises and record bonuses in 2007. Many of their nonunion counterparts here in the United States did not, even though vehicle sales rates and profits were robust. They have proposed additional raises for 2008.

In Japan, Toyota increased worker’s average base monthly salary in 2007 by 1,000 yen ($8.76) to 350,580 yen ($3,073). Also, each worker received a bonus of roughly $22,000, equivalent to almost one-third of workers’ total compensation.

The Family Treatment. Japanese-owned auto companies like to say their workers belong to one, big family. But they have developed pay scales which treat some family members differently than others.

Nissan, like Toyota, gave wage increases and bonuses to its unionized workers in Japan in 2007. But here in the United States, nonunion Nissan workers did not receive either wage increases or bonuses in 2007.

The disparity in wages paid to workers in different countries is also reflected in wages and bonuses for workers at Japanese auto factories in other Asian countries. Data from the Japan Business Federation shows wages in Japan are almost double those in South Korea and as much as 20 times higher than in China.

Companies such as Toyota, Nissan and Honda talk about respecting workers and using the team approach to achieve their goals. Giving union workers in Japan wage increases and bonuses, despite sluggish sales, while denying the same to workers in United States who are contributing to record sales and profits doesn’t seem like a team approach – or much of a way to treat a “family.”