TOKYO, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Japan's real wages increased 0.1 percent in August from a year earlier, marking the first rise in eight months, the government said in a report on Friday.
According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, total cash earnings per worker, including base and overtime pay, stood at 274,490 yen (2,432 U.S. dollars) in the recording period.
This marks an increase of 0.9 percent and comes on the heels of a drop a month earlier, the ministry said in its preliminary report.
Average base pay and other scheduled wages rose 0.4 percent, marking a fifth successive month of increase, the ministry said, while unscheduled wages, including overtime pay, rose 1.5 percent in the recording period.
The ministry's data also showed that special pay, which includes bonuses, increased 6.1 percent.
Separately, according to the latest data from the statistics bureau, the average monthly income in Japan, per salaried household, stood at 485,099 yen (4,299 U.S. dollars), up 1.0 percent on year in nominal terms and up 0.2 percent in real terms, from the previous year.
The average consumption expenditures per household, meanwhile, stood at 301,574 yen (2,672 U.S. dollars), unchanged in nominal terms but down 0.8 percent in real terms from the previous year, the statistics bureau said.
The labor ministry said that the rise in wages reflects an overall upward trend in base salary.
It added that the slight increase in wages recently, on an inflation-adjusted basis, came despite an ongoing increase in consumer prices, owing to higher energy costs.
