January 2022
Survey of Corporate Attitudes towards Wage Trends for 2022
54.6% of companies anticipate wage improvement in the Wage Trends for 2022
— Companies anticipating an increase in total personnel cost stood at 67.1%, which showed a significant increase from that of the previous year —
Introduction
According to the Monthly Labour Survey (breaking results for 2021) published by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare on February 8, average total cash earnings equivalent to nominal wages turned to an increase, at up 0.3% year-on-year for the first time in three years. On the other hand, amid continuous surges in prices of raw materials and crude oil, real wages calculated after removing the impact of price fluctuations have remained flat since last year. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Kishida emphasized the importance of investing in people, such as through the wage increase in his policy speech on January 17, and the government indicated a policy to support wage increases through the Tax Credits for Acceleration of Wage Increases.
In such circumstances, Teikoku Databank conducted a survey of corporate attitudes towards wage trends for 2022. This survey was conducted in conjunction with the January 2022 TDB Trends Research.
*Survey period: January 18 - January 31, 2022; Companies Surveyed: 24,072; Valid Responses: 11,981 (Response Rate: 49.8%) The survey on wages has been conducted every January since January 2006, and this is the 17th such survey.
*Details of this survey can be found on the dedicated Economic Trends Survey HP. (http://www.tdb-di.com/).
Primary points of survey results(summary)
- 1 54.6 of companies anticipate wage improvement in 2022.
Companies anticipating wage improvement in 2022 stood at 54.6% (12.6 points up from the 2021 survey), exceeding 50% for the first time in two years. On the other hand, companies ‘without’ wage improvement stood at 19.5% (8.5 points down from the 2021 survey). Wage improvement comprised 46.4% of ‘pay-scale raises’, and 27.7% of ‘bonus pay (lump-sum payment)’, which respectively increased from the previous year’s levels. The percentage of ‘pay-scale raises’ showed the highest level thus far, exceeding 45.6% for 2019. - 2 Stability of and securing the workforce' constituted the greatest reasons for wage improvement, while a surge in raw materials became a negative factor.
Among the reasons stated by those companies ‘with’ a wage improvement, 'stability of and securing the workforce' due to a manpower shortage accounted for the majority, at 76.6%. On the other hand, 'slumping business performance of own company' was the most common reason as in the survey for 2021, and stood at 64.7%, among the reasons stated by those companies ‘without’ wage improvement. In addition, regardless of ‘with’ or ‘without’ wage improvement, more companies cited ‘price trends’ as a factor. Among companies affected by the surge in prices of raw materials, those which have not made much progress in passing on costs to prices tended to have a lower percentage incidence of wage improvement compared to those which have made progress in passing on costs to prices. - 3 67.1% of companies anticipate an ‘increase’ in total personnel expenses for 2022, which indicated a significant increase and turnaround from 2021
Companies anticipating that total personnel expenses would ‘increase’ for 2022 stood at 67.1%, a sizeable increase of 12.9 points from the 2021 survey. While attention is paid to how companies respond to the Tax Credits for Acceleration of Wage Increases, 27.2% of those companies with stated capital exceeding 100 million yen, and 67.7% of those with stated capital of 100 million yen or less, respectively, expect 3% or more, and 1% or more increase in total personnel expenses.