TOKYO: The average of pay scale increases secured by labor unions of Japanese manufacturers as of the end of March in this spring’s “shunto” wage talks hit a record high of 9,593 yen per month amid rising prices and labor shortages, the Japan Council of Metalworkers’ Unions said Tuesday.

“In general, I think it’s fair to give (this year’s shunto) a perfect score,” as many labor unions secured high-level pay increases, JCM chief KANEKO Akihiro said at a press conference in Tokyo.

Still, the gap between the average pay scale increase of large companies and that of smaller companies grew to 4,370 yen from 1,818 yen a year earlier.

The gap expanded to “an unacceptable level,” YASUKOUCHI Katahiro, head of the Japanese Association of Metal, Machinery, and Manufacturing Workers, a group under the JCM’s umbrella that consists of many labor unions of smaller companies, said at a separate press conference.

According to the JCM, 1,077 of the group’s 2,268 member labor unions secured a pay scale increase as they demanded.

The average increase for large companies stood at 12,389 yen, that for midsize firms came to 11,000 yen and that for smaller companies was 8,019 yen.

JIJI Press