Japan Auto Unions to Seek 12,000-Yen Pay Scale Hike

Tokyo, Jan. 9 (Jiji Press)--The Confederation of Japan Automobile Workers' Unions, or JAW, on Thursday set its target at 12,000 yen for pay scale hikes in this year's "shunto" spring wage negotiations.

The group, which consists of unions with a total of 784,000 members at auto-related companies, approved the target at a meeting of its central committee in Yokohama, south of Tokyo.

It is the first time in seven years that the group has set a specific pay scale increase target.

"It is a turning point," said JAW President Akihiro Kaneko. The group aims to narrow the widening wage gap between small and large companies through the upcoming shunto talks.

Since 2019, the group has avoided setting specific wage increase targets to make it easier for smaller unions to demand larger wage hikes than larger unions. However, smaller unions have refrained from demanding larger hikes, resulting in a widening wage gap, according to Kaneko.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]