Japan Real Wages Fall For 15th Straight Month

Japan's real wages in June fell 1.6% from a year earlier, declining for the 15th straight month as salary increases failed to keep up with accelerating inflation, government data showed, Kyodo News reported.

Photo Insert: Major Japanese companies offered wage hikes of 3.58% on average at annual wage negotiations earlier in the year, the highest increase in three decades, to cope with inflation.

The drop in inflation-adjusted wages reflected higher food, energy and other prices on the back of Russia's war in Ukraine, offsetting the impact of the sharpest growth in 30 years at this year's pay negotiations.

Nominal wages, the average total cash earnings per worker, including base and overtime pay, rose 2.3% to 462,040 yen ($3,200), increasing for the 18th straight month, said the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

"We will likely see the effect of wage increases by companies gradually," a labor ministry official told Mainichi Shimbun.

Major Japanese companies offered wage hikes of 3.58% on average at annual wage negotiations earlier in the year, the highest increase in three decades, in the face of repeated calls by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for pay rises to cope with inflation. Consumer inflation, however, accelerated by more than 4% at one stage this year and remains above 3%.

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