Japan’s real wages rise 0.4 pct in July, up for 2 straight months

TOKYO, Sept. 5 (Xinhua) — Japanese workers’ real wages in July climbed 0.4 percent from a year earlier, rising for the second consecutive month, boosted by summertime bonus payments, government data showed Thursday.
Nominal wages, the average monthly cash earnings per worker including base pay, overtime and bonuses, grew 3.6 percent to 403,490 yen (about 2,800 U.S. dollars), marking 31 straight months of increase, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare reported.
Special payments, largely reflecting bonuses, rose 6.2 percent to 118,807 yen in July, while overtime and other allowances edged down 0.1 percent at 19,590 yen, according to the data.
The real, inflation-adjusted wages rose at a slower pace than June’s 1.1 percent growth when it turned positive for the first time in 27 months amid rising consumer prices, the ministry said.
The labor ministry attributed the continued rise in real wages to more companies paying bonuses compared with a year earlier. But the slowdown in real wage growth was primarily due to more companies paying bonuses in June than July, a ministry official said.
The official noted that real wage growth could start to decline again in August or later, outpaced by inflation, since most firms pay summer bonuses in June and July. (1 Japanese yen equals 0.0070 U.S. dollar) ■