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Japan's average monthly wages see 1st annual rise in 5 years in 2016

Xinhua, February 6, 2017 Adjust font size:

Averages monthly wages in Japan on an inflation-adjusted basis increased 0.7 percent in 2016 from a year earlier, marking the first annual rise in five years, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said in a report on Monday.

According to the ministry, monthly wages were up 0.5 percent on a nominal basis and including provisions for bonuses, stood at an average of 315,372 yen (1 Japanese yen equals to 0.0089 U.S. dollar).

The ministry indicated that the wage rises were in part due to large companies here, following solid earnings for the fiscal year, increasing their employees' base wages in spring last year.

The ministry's data also indicated that falling prices in 2016 also helped increase monthly wages in real terms.

However, while the average monthly pay for full-timers in 2016 rose 0.8 percent in 2016 to 411,788 yen as compared to a year earlier, part-timers' monthly earnings dropped to 97,670 yen, a decrease of 0.1 percent, the ministry said.

The number of those holding part-time positions compared to those in full-time employment increase in Japan in 2016, according to the ministry's data, to a record ratio of 30.7 percent of the total workforce.

The government's latest data also showed that the average annual hours worked including non-scheduled hours, such as overtime, was the lowest since comparable data became available in 1990, at 1,724 hours in 2016.

The regular monthly base wage gained 0.2 percent to 240,267 yen in the recording year, the ministry said, with overtime pay and other nonscheduled cash earnings on a monthly bases falling an average of 0.6 percent to 19,468 yen.

Bonuses and other special payments outside the regular monthly payment framework increased 2 percent to 55,637 yen, the ministry's data showed.

For the month of December, while the inflation-adjusted wage dropped by 0.4 percent on average for the first time in a year, the average overall monthly pay including bonuses rose 0.1 percent to 544,823 yen.

The ministry conducted its survey by gathering information from more than 30,000 randomly selected companies and firms with at least five employees. Endit