Japanese Trade Union Confederation (RENGO)

Minimum Settlement Standards Endorsed by SME Joint Struggle Center

An Increase of More than ¥200 Over Last Year, or ¥3,200

On April 16, in order to promote settlements at unsettled unions, the Small-and-Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) Joint Struggle Center, represented by RENGO Vice President Koide, endorsed its minimum wage standard for agreement of "an increase of more than ¥200 over last year, or ¥3,200."

According to results collected from 1,593 unions polled up until April 13, small-and-medium-sized unions and local unions were making a good show with an average ¥269 or 0.09% increase compared to the results obtained at the same time last year. The minimum wage standard was derived from the results of that analysis. We will furthermore fortify our joint struggle stance while keeping a watchful eye on the standard in order to draw results from the second settlement promotion zone-period which starts from the fourth week of April (April 19 -) and runs through the end of the month.

The minimum wage standard agreement is the minimum standard for unions which will face settlement negotiations from this time on. RENGO established it so that those unions that have not joined RENGO as well as non-unionized workers can use it as an indicator of when to decide their wages.