Wages down in March

A survey shows Japanese workers in March saw the first year-on-year decline in wages in 10 months.

The Labor Ministry polled some 33,000 businesses nationwide. Preliminary results indicate that a worker earned an average of about 2,500 dollars in the month, including overtime and bonuses.

That’s down 0.4 percent from a year earlier. In real terms, adjusted for inflation, the decline was 0.8 percent.

Ministry officials say the drop was largely a reaction to a big increase in pay in March last year, and that the overall growth trend is continuing.

Source and image: NHK