Japanese Wages Rose in August According to Survey

Monthly wages at companies in Japan were raised on average by a record margin in 2015 on the back of economic recovery, a labor ministry survey showed Thursday.

Wages per month on average increased by 5,282 yen ($43), up 28 yen or 1.9 percent from the previous year, logging the largest margin since 1999 when comparable data became available, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said.

The survey, conducted in August on companies with employees of 100 or more, drew responses from 1,661 firms.

A ministry official said, “On the back of the economic recovery, companies’ performance and employment situations have improved, leading to a continued significant rise in wages.”

A record-high 85.4 percent of the respondents said in the survey they have raised or were planning to increase wages, including base pay and family allowance, up from last year’s 83.6 percent.

Among companies with employees of 5,000 or more, monthly wages per worker increased 7,248 yen on average, topping the 7,000 threshold for the first time.

By sector, the construction industry raised monthly wages by 2.2 percent or 7,370 yen, the real estate industry by 2.2 percent or 6,381 yen, and the financial and insurance sector by 2.1 percent or 7,603 yen.

via Mainichi

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Alfonso Esparza

Alfonso Esparza

Senior Currency Analyst at Market Pulse
Alfonso Esparza specializes in macro forex strategies for North American and major currency pairs. Upon joining OANDA in 2007, Alfonso Esparza established the MarketPulseFX blog and he has since written extensively about central banks and global economic and political trends. Alfonso has also worked as a professional currency trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Alfonso Esparza