Nomura to raise pay for 3,700 employees at Japan brokerage

[TOKYO] Nomura Holdings Inc. will raise salaries for staff at its Japanese brokerage for a third year.

Base pay for about 3,700 employees at the Nomura Securities Co. unit will climb an average 2 per cent starting in April, Kenji Yamashita, a spokesman for the Tokyo-based firm, said Monday by phone. The increase targets younger workers in an effort to contribute to Japan's economic growth, the firm said in a statement.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has been urging companies to boost salaries in a bid to spur spending and defeat deflation. Nomura's move brings total pay increases to eligible employees to 6.8 per cent over three years, according to the statement by Japan's biggest brokerage.

The pay rise averages about 6,000 yen (S$72.90) a month and will cost the company 260 million yen, Mr Yamashita said. Graduates who start in April will get 240,000 yen a month, up from 232,300 yen received by the previous year's new employees, he added.

BLOOMBERG