Real wages rose for the first time in four months in February as base pay and other scheduled wages hit a more than 10-year high, the government said Tuesday.
Average inflation-adjusted wages gained 0.4 percent from a year earlier, while nominal wages rose 0.9 percent to ¥262,558, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said in a preliminary report.
Base pay and other scheduled wages jumped 0.6 percent to ¥239,123, marking the sharpest growth since November 2005 and thus pushing up nominal and real wages.
It is thought that real wages grew because the share of part-time workers — whose wages are lower than full-time employees — declined in the latest survey.
"Although wages are gradually increasing, we will keep (a) close watch" to see if the trend is firmly established, a ministry official said.
Unscheduled wages including overtime pay increased 0.4 percent to ¥19,541.
In March, the ministry said in a preliminary report that average real wages and nominal wages gained 0.4 percent in January, but they were revised downward to flat growth in the final report.
Meanwhile, average winter bonuses for 2015 sagged 0.3 percent to ¥370,367 following a rise a year earlier, according to the ministry.