◆Companies that raised wages increased both the amount and the rate of increase compared to last year.
According to the results of the 2023 “Survey on Wage Increases, etc.” conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, 89.1% of companies raised or increased average wages per worker (up 3.4 points from the previous year), and the average wage increase per worker was 9,437 yen (up 3,903 yen). The average wage increase was 3.2% (up 1.3 points), the highest figure since 1999.
The survey covered 3,620 privately owned companies with corporate organizations employing at least 100 permanent workers, and valid responses were received from 1,901 companies.
By industry, the percentage of companies that have raised or will raise average wages is highest in the “construction” sector at 100.0%, followed by the “manufacturing” sector at 97.7% and the “electricity, gas, heat supply, and water supply” sector at 92.9%.
The “Mining, quarrying, and gravel extraction” industry had the highest average wage increase at 18,507 yen (5.2% increase), followed by the “Information and communications” industry at 15,402 yen (4.5% increase) and the construction industry at 12,752 yen (3.8% increase).
◆Not all companies are raising wages due to strong performance.
In terms of the percentage of factors that were most important in determining wage revisions, “company performance” was the most important factor at 36.0%, followed by “securing and retaining labor” at 16.1% and “maintaining employment” at 11.6%.
As indicated by the results of this survey, an increasing number of companies have implemented wage increases in recent years. Reasons for this include responding to rising prices, improving employee motivation, and securing and retaining human resources. However, not all companies that have implemented wage increases have done so because of strong business performance, and many companies have implemented wage increases to protect the livelihood of their employees and prevent the outflow of human resources, even though their business performance has not improved. When implementing a wage increase, it will be necessary to carefully consider the various support measures and other policies set by the government to raise wages.
