More than 80% of employers in Japan plan salary raises in 2024
More organisations in Japan have plans to raise wages in 2024, with a majority of them planning a wage increase on par with that of 2023.
This was one of the findings from a survey conducted by Tokyo Shōkō Research, which surveyed 4,581 organisations in Japan between December 1 and 11 last year and found more than four out of five organisations (82.9%, or 3,799 of the respondents) plan to raise wages in 2024. The majority, at 51.5%, plan to implement a wage increase on par with that of 2023, while 19.7% intend to implement a smaller wage increase and 11.6% a larger one. Meanwhile, 17% of respondents said that there are currently no plans to raise wages for employees this year.
Within organisations that intend to raise wages higher in 2024, 14.1% were large firms and 11.3% were small to medium-sized enterprises. Meanwhile, 17.9% of firm with no prospect of raising wages were small or medium-sized enterprises, nearly twice the number of large firm (9.2%). Tokyo Shōkō Research commented that “many small and medium-sized enterprises have been unable to shake free of slumping business performance, making it difficult to raise wages.”
When cross-analysed between sectors, the real-estate sector had the highest percentage of firm intending to raise wages higher than in 2023, at 17.5% (or 19 of the 108 organisations within). This is followed by the information and telecommunications industry at 15.6% and the service industry at 13.1%.
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The finance and insurance sector, on the other hand, had the highest percentage of firms whose wage increases would likely be less than any wage increase in 2023, at 42.4%, reported Nippon.com.