Japan's real wages fall for sixth straight month as pandemic bites

[TOKYO] Japan's inflation-adjusted real wages fell for the sixth straight month in August, reflecting a big drop in overtime pay due to the impact on the labour market from the Covid-19 pandemic, government data showed on Friday.

Labour ministry data showed real wages, a key barometer of households' purchasing power, dropped 1.4 per cent in August from a year earlier, following a downwardly revised 1.8 per cent decline in July.

Wage earners' nominal total cash earnings fell 1.3 per cent to 273,263 yen (S$3,500) in August from a year earlier, the fifth consecutive month of declines.

The drop in overtime pay and summer bonuses added to a modest decline in regular pay as the economic blow from the coronavirus crisis prompted companies to cut costs.

Overtime pay, a key gauge of strength in corporate activity, dropped 14.0 per cent in the year to August, following a downward revision to a 17.1 per cent drop and down for a full straight year.

Regular pay - or base salary, which makes up most of total cash earnings - slipped 0.1 per cent in August, down for the first time since June 2019.

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Special payments, which predominantly consists of one-off bonuses, fell 4.0 per cent in the year to August, the data showed.

Wage earners' cash earnings fell about 1 per cent during the January-August period compared with the same period a year ago.

REUTERS