The National Personnel Authority recommended Thursday that the Diet and Cabinet introduce a 2.03 percent cut in monthly wages for national government employees for the current fiscal year.
It is the first time for the authority to recommend a wage cut since the current pay recommendation system started in 1948. The move is aimed at keeping salaries in line with the shrinking wages in the private sector, but critics fear this could fuel a vicious cycle.
The panel has recommended that national civil servants receive annual wages lower than they did in the past fiscal year, as the rate cut was above the 1.66 percent regular wage hike.