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Average wages showed slight rise in November: Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare

January 21, 2008
By Ken Worsley


On Friday, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare released its labor survey for November 2007. From the data, we see that cash earnings in that month stood at 290,302 yen on average, up 0.1% from a year before. This is the second of eleven reported months in 2007 that have seen an increase in wage. The only other month to see an increase was August.

Although the increase in wages may seem like a good thing, we see that the real wage index was actually down 0.5% in November. It’s important to notice that the 0.1% increase in wages came on the back of an average 1.4% increase in the number of hours worked in November (at 156 hours). The media inexplicably failed to pick up on this second statistic.

Real good news, however, comes from the fact that the number of regular employees (正社員) increased by 2.2% in November. At the same time, however, we do still see growth in the market for part-timers, as their ranks expanded 5.2% while the number of full-timers increased 1.0%.

As far as wages go, we are not optimistic that they will see serious increases in 2008, due to a host of factors. One particularly telling reason might be the rise in wages that Toyota’s union is set to demand at the upcoming shunto (Spring wage negotiations). Union negotiators are apparently shooting for a 1,000 yen monthly raise on the average for Toyota workers.

That’s right - if you work for Toyota, you can sleep well knowing that the union is fighting for you to get an extra $9.43 per month next year. That’s $113.16 over the year. Does that even pay for the next option up on a new Corona?

Filed Under Economic Reports, Labor and Wages 

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Comments

3 Responses to “Average wages showed slight rise in November: Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare”

  1. PPrince on January 21st, 2008 12:11 pm

    1,000 yen a month…wow. People say the union leaders aren’t really out for the best interest of the workers in Japan, but that’s pretty sad.

  2. WG on January 22nd, 2008 9:45 pm

    PPrince, they’re cozy as can be with management. Can’t have anyone rocking the boat, can we? Maybe Toyota would be acting different if it were a growing, dynamic organization looking to take over the world and reward its employees in the process.

  3. December household spending up 2.2 percent, household income down 2.7 percent Japan Economy News & Blog - Business, Economy, Marketing and Economic Reports on January 31st, 2008 8:50 pm

    […] spending would be restrained by belt-tightening as the winter truly hit. We know that average wages showed a 0.1% uptick in November, but that hardly seems like enough to have caused a spending spree. So what did households increase […]

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