TOKYO — Japan’s real wages fell in
March for a twelfth month, government data showed on Tuesday, as
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consumer inflation outpaced nominal pay growth for a full year
despite policymakers’ pleas for higher employee compensation.
Large firms concluded three-decade-high wage hikes at their
March labor talks, and whether the trend spreads to smaller
businesses is key to the outlook for the Bank of Japan’s
monetary policy normalization under the new governor Kazuo Ueda.
Inflation-adjusted real wages, a barometer of households’
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purchasing power, decreased by 2.9% in March from a year
earlier, following the same pace of decline in February.
Total cash earnings, or nominal wages, grew 0.8%
year-on-year in March, also following the same rate of growth in
February.
Yet the nominal pay growth fell short of the 3.8% consumer
inflation rate used to calculate real wages, which includes
fresh food but excludes owners’ equivalent rent.
Overtime pay, a gauge of business activity, rose 1.1% in
March from a year earlier, after a revised 1.2% growth in the
previous month.
Special payments advanced 4.6% in March, faster than a
revised 2.2% gain in the previous month. The indicator tends to
be volatile in months outside the twice-a-year bonus seasons of
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November to January and June to August.
The table below shows preliminary data for monthly incomes
and number of workers in March:
—————————————————————-
Payments (amount) (yr/yr % change)
Total cash earnings 291,081 yen ($2,156) +0.8
-Monthly wage 269,007 yen +0.5
-Regular pay 249,686 yen +0.5
-Overtime pay 19,321 yen +1.1
-Special payments 22,074 yen +4.6
—————————————————————-
Number of workers (million) (yr/yr % change)
Overall 51.435 +1.8
-General employees 35.048 +1.0
-Part-time employees 16.387 +3.6
—————————————————————-
The labor ministry defines “workers” as 1) those employed
for more than one month at a company that employed more than
five people, or 2) those employed on a daily basis or had less
than a one-month contract but had worked more than 18 days
during the two months before the survey was conducted, at a
company that employs more than five people.
To view the full tables, see the labor ministry’s website
at: http://www.mhlw.go.jp/english/database/db-l/index.html
($1 = 134.9900 yen)
(Reporting by Kantaro Komiya; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
