The results come ahead of annual pay negotiations
- 52% of firms do not plan to raise base pay
- 48% of plan to raise salaries
The Japanese Prime Minster Abe, along with the main business lobby (Keidanren), have called for 3% wage rise this year. Which is not going to happen.
A wage rise should encourage consumption and inflation
Adds the report, as useful background:
- In the past four years, major companies agreed to raise wages about 2 percent at annual wage negotiations with labour unions, a benchmark that sets the tone for talks across the country. The bulk of that - about 1.8 percent - comes automatically under Japan's seniority-based employment system. Anything beyond that is a hike in "base pay." But many firms are wary of raising wages as it commits them to higher fixed personnel costs, so they prefer to pay one-off bonuses instead.
And:
- "Keidanren set an unusually high target of 3 percent for wage hikes and the government has expanded tax incentives for companies raising wages," said Yuichiro Nagai, economist at Barclays Securities, which forecast a wage hike of 2.3 percent.
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Monthly Reuters Corporate Survey conducted by Nikkei Research
survey was conducted between Jan 31 and Feb 14
240 companies responded
