Nearly 40% of surveyed firms in Japan expect wages hike

A survey of more than 11,000 companies showed Thursday nearly four out of every 10 business corporations plan to raise wages for their regular workers in fiscal 2011 starting April 1, major credit research agency Teikoku Databank Ltd. said Thursday.

Teikoku Databank said it surveyed 23,356 firms, listed by the agency for business sentiment polls, about their wage policies between Jan. 19 and 31. Of them, 11,017 provided valid responses, it said.

Of the respondents, 4,131 firms, or 37.5 percent, replied that they are planning to raise wages for their regular workers, such as pay-scale and bonus hikes. The figure represents a 5.7 percentage point increase from the 31.8 percent estimated for fiscal 2011 in last year’s survey.

In contrast, 3,942 companies, or 35.8 percent, replied they have no plans to raise wages in the coming business year, down 4.7 points, the report said.

As for nonregular workers, 4,515 firms, or 51.5 percent, plan no pay hikes, compared with 1,404 firms, or 16.0 percent, which plan to raise their wages.

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