TOKYO, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Japan's real wages fell 2.2 percent in fiscal 2023 from the previous year, logging the sharpest drop in nine years, as inflation outpaced pay increases, the government said Thursday.
The inflation-adjusted wages declined for the second straight year following a 1.8 percent decrease in fiscal 2022, marking the largest drop since fiscal 2014 when real wages fell by 2.9 percent due to a consumption tax hike, according to the revised data released by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
In nominal terms, the average monthly wage in the fiscal year ended March this year, including bonuses, rose 1.3 percent to 332,533 yen (2,120 U.S. dollars), rising for the third straight year.
However, the consumer price index, a measure used to calculate real wages, climbed 3.5 percent in the reporting year, outstripping the growth in nominal wages and resulting in the drop in real wages.
In March alone, Japanese workers' real wages fell 2.1 percent from a year earlier for a 24th consecutive month, breaking the record of the longest consecutive streak of monthly declines, set around the time of the global financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers. ■
