Employees of SMEs in Japan to be paid more

This was according to a survey conducted in June by the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) on its small and medium-sized member companies.

The figure rose 9.5 percentage points from 41.4% at the time of a similar survey in June last year.

Of those companies implementing wage increases, 13.7% saw it as a “positive measure” to improve business, a result which reflected little change to the previous year’s survey.

In contrast, the percentage of companies that were implementing wage increases as a “protective measure” to secure human resources or as a response to rising prices increased by 6.9 percentage points to 37.2%.

As for why SMEs were increasing wages, the most common reason at 91.4% was “recruitment, retainment and motivation of personnel.” “Price rises” saw a significant rise of 18.4 points from the December 2021 survey to 29.2%.

Comments from JCCI member companies included, “If we don’t raise wages, we can’t secure human resources” and “We need to increase base pay and introduce new benefits to retain employees.”

Among companies currently holding back from raising wages, 76.9% gave uncertain business conditions and economic situation as their main reason for their stance and 44.1% said it was due to lack of visible improvement in business performance. Some companies also lamented being hampered by COVID-19 loan repayments.

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The survey, conducted nationwide in mid-June 2022, targeted companies that are JCCI members and received 2,063 valid responses, according to Nippon.com.