Economy

“Shunto” Pay Hike Demands Top 5% for 1st Time in 30 Yrs

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Tomoko Yoshino

Jiji Press

18:26 JST, March 7, 2024

TOKYO (Jiji Press) — The weighted average of wage hikes requested by 3,102 member unions of the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo, in this year’s “shunto” labor-management negotiations came to 5.85%, preliminary data showed Thursday.

It is the first time in 30 years for the average to exceed 5%, when compared with past final survey results. The 3,102 unions all use a method of negotiating wage increase per worker.

The average demanded wage increase, including pay-scale hikes and regular raises, stood at ¥17,606 as of Monday, up ¥4,268 from around the same time last year.

A total of 3,726 labor unions have already submitted their demands to management, accounting for 52.3% of the unions covered by the Rengo tally of shunto requests.

Rengo is calling for pay hike requests of at least 5% including pay-scale hikes and regular raises in the 2024 shunto.