About 70 percent of municipal governments see few prospects for labor shortages improving at day care centers because teachers and other staff will remain underpaid even after a wage hike planned for April, a Kyodo News survey found Monday.

Monthly wages for nurses will rise 2 percent, or close to ¥6,000, and mid-level staff will get a chance to receive a wage hike of up to ¥40,000 per month. Even so, the incomes of both will remain lower than those in other occupations.

As of April last year, more than 23,000 children were on waiting lists for day care centers nationwide.