Japan plans another record hike in minimum wage, Kyodo News says

FILES PHOTO: A Nissan worker checks radiation levels on a "Nissan GT-R" sports car produced in Japan at its Oppama factory in Yokosuka, some 40-kilometres south of Tokyo on April 22, 2011. Raising Japan's legally binding minimum wage would boost households' purchasing power, but squeeze profits at small firms that struggle to make ends meet. - AFP)

TOKYO: A Japanese labour ministry panel plans to recommend an increase of about six per cent in the national average minimum wage for this fiscal year, for the biggest such jump since at least 2002, the Kyodo news agency said on Friday (Aug 1).

The proposed hike, to about 1,118 yen (US$7.43) per hour, would exceed last year's increase of five per cent and be the largest since the current system began, the agency added, without citing sources.