International•29 Jul ’23 18:20 Author: Remy Kock
The Japanese Ministry of Labor has proposed raising minimum wages by a record 4.3 percent. That writes Bloomberg. With the increase, Japanese hourly wages will exceed 1,000 Japanese yen per hour for the first time, which should enable low-income workers to better cope with inflation.
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. The Japanese Ministry of Labor has proposed raising minimum wages by a record 4.3 percent. That writes Bloomberg. With the increase, Japanese hourly wages will exceed 1,000 Japanese yen per hour for the first time, which should enable low-income workers to better cope with inflation. (Jiji Press)
If the plans go ahead, it would be a record increase in both absolute and percentage terms since the Japanese government began using hourly wages as a benchmark in 2002. Like many other countries, Japan has been battling raging inflation, which rising faster than wages there.
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In total, wages rose about 2.5 percent for all Japanese workers, but after an inflation adjustment, only 1.2 percent of that remained.
Salary step
Analysts therefore consider it more than necessary to raise wages by more than 3 percent to keep inflation above the Bank of Japan’s target of 2 percent. Yesterday, the Bank of Japan raised its inflation forecast for this fiscal year from 1.8 percent to 2.5 percent. Nevertheless, it wants to implement monetary easing, because inflation is expected to fall back below 2 percent in the next two years.
2023-07-29 16:20:21
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