Real wages in Japan rose for the first time in 27 months in June, thanks to big pay increases resulting from wage negotiations this year.
Japan’s public broadcaster NHK quoted the Japanese Ministry of Labor as saying that inflation-adjusted wages rose 1.1 percent from a year earlier.
More companies offered bonuses in June than the annual average, the ministry said, based on a monthly survey of more than 30,000 companies with at least five employees.
Nominal wages, or the average total monthly cash income per worker including basic pay and overtime, rose 4.5 percent to 498,884 yen ($3,440), government data showed, extending the 30th straight month of gains. That compared with a 3.3 percent increase in consumer prices in the same month.
Of this total, basic pay rose 2.3 percent, while additional pay including bonuses jumped 7.6 percent.