(Update) Keidanren Urges Member Companies to Consider Pay Scale Hikes

   Tokyo, Jan. 21 (Jiji Press)--The Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, on Tuesday released guidelines for its member companies on this year's "shunto" spring wage negotiations, urging them to consider pay scale hikes.
   In the guidelines, Keidanren said that an overall wage increase target of 5 pct or more set by the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo, is in line with its policy.
   However, it criticized a target for smaller unions to seek 6 pct or more as extremely high even as a guideline and part of a campaign.
   The business group noted that wage increase targets should be set at levels that are helpful in promoting healthy and constructive negotiations between labor and management.
   Keidanren stressed that the group and its member companies have a social responsibility to contribute to the formation of a thick middle class and the realization of structural wage increases by ensuring that the momentum for wage increases, which was seen in the past two years, takes root broadly in society.

(2025/01/21-21:06)