The yearon-year rate of change in real income of employees as a whole, excluding the effects of the consumption tax hike, has also been positive for nine consecutive months since March 2014 (Chart 13).
Therefore, in my view, a fair assessment of real wages would be that “while both a wage per worker and labor income as a whole have been increasing to the extent that matches price increases brought about by demand expansion, those have yet to rise to offset also the effects of the consumption tax hike.” In the case of stimulating demand through monetary easing, normally, as a rise in prices precedes a rise in nominal wages, real wages will decline at initial phases.