In the ongoing 2024 annual wage negotiations, Toyota Motor Corp.’s labor union is expected to demand its biggest annual bonus on record, worth 7.6 months of pay—amounting to more than the previous high of 7.2 months—as reported by the Nikkei business daily without citing sources.
The Nikkei reported that the trade union is expected to demand large amounts of monthly pay hikes, given Toyota’s recent announcement that it expects to post record consolidated operating profits worth 4.5 trillion yen ($30.45 billion) for the fiscal year ending in March 2024.
Other large companies have already declared their intentions to boost wages even further than those of Japanese companies, which last year gave the biggest pay increases in thirty years in an attempt to deal with labor shortages and pressures from rising costs of living.
The Toyota union is demanding higher bonus payments this year than it did last year, which was equivalent to 6.7 months’ worth of wages.
By the end of February, the union is probably going to make an official decision.
The Bank of Japan views the country’s spring wage negotiations, which end in mid-March, as essential to attaining inflation and sustainable wage growth.
In addition, the BOJ has underlined that in order to end years of negative interest rates and withdraw from its ten-year monetary stimulus program, both requirements must be fulfilled.
One dollar is equal to 147,7600 yen.
