TOKYO Japan's real wages fell for the fifth month in August, government data showed on Friday, as consumer prices rose at the fastest pace in eight years, outstripping modest pay growth.
While the Bank of Japan maintains massive monetary easing, policymakers are urging firms to raise wages to kick start a sustainable growth cycle of higher wages and greater consumer and business spending while easing the pain of inflation that has been amplified by the currency's slide to a 24 year low.
In August, inflation-adjusted real wages dropped by 1.7 per cent from a year earlier, labour ministry data showed, following a revised 1.8 per cent fall in the previous month.
The consumer price index, CPI, used by the ministry to calculate real wages, including fresh food prices but excludes owners' equivalent rent, rose by an annual 3.5 per cent.
That was the fastest since the 3.9 per cent recorded in Sept. 2014, and outpaced a 1.7 per cent increase in nominal cash earnings after a revised 1.3 per cent gain in July.
Overtime pay, a key indicator of strength in corporate activity, increased by 4.3 per cent in August from a year earlier, the smallest gain in five months.
Special payments, which include the discretionary seasonal bonuses that firms tend to slash when they are faced with headwinds, rose 0.7 per cent in August after a 1.6 per cent increase the previous month.
The following table shows the preliminary data for monthly incomes and numbers of workers in August:
The ministry defines workers as 1 those who were employed more than one month at a company that employed more than five people, or 2 those who were employed on a daily basis or had less than a one-month contract during the two months before the survey was conducted, at a company that employs more than five people.
To view the full tables, see the labour ministry's website at: