TOKYO: Japanese companies have agreed to raise pay by a 33-year high of 5.24 pct per month, or 16,037 yen, on weighted average in this year’s “shunto” spring wage talks, a survey by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo, showed Thursday.

Of them, smaller companies, which hold the key to boosting overall pay levels in the country, raised wages by 4.69 pct, or 12,097 yen, according to Rengo’s third shunto tally. In the second tally, their average increase was 4.50 pct, or 11,916 yen.

The latest tally suggests that small and midsize firms, mainly transportation and distribution companies struggling with labor shortages, have been moving to raise wages.

“Labor shortages are very serious among small and midsize businesses,” Rengo President Tomoko Yoshino told a news conference. Such businesses apparently believe “wage increases are necessary to stop the outflow of workers,” she said. “We want to make efforts to sustain this wage hike trend,” she added.

Rengo’s latest tally is based on the shunto results received by 2,620 member unions, or roughly half of the total members that requested pay increases, as of Tuesday.

Big companies with 1,000 or more union members raised wages by 5.28 pct, or 16,622 yen, according to the latest tally.

Separately, UA Zensen, mainly comprising labor unions in the distribution and restaurant industries, said Thursday that pay hikes as of the end of March averaged 5.49 pct, or 16,446 yen, for regular employees and 6.11 pct, or 66.7 yen on an hourly basis, for part-timers.

The pace of increase among part-time workers surpassed that of regular workers for the ninth consecutive year.

“The wage gap depending on work styles has been corrected to some extent,” UA Zensen chief Akihiko Matsuura told a news conference.

JIJI Press