Wages rose about 8 per cent in Asia last year, despite the global financial crisis that cut wage growth in most regions, an International Labour Organization report (ILO) revealed Wednesday. "In 2009 the provisional estimate for wage growth is 8 per cent - which would be by far the best performance of any region in the world," the ILO said, citing the results of its Global Wage Report 2010/2011. Asia's average wage rise, however, was heavily influenced by China which accounts for more than half of total wage employment in Asia, and experienced a dramatic increase in wages in 2009, according to dpa. Elsewhere in Asia, the wage picture was less bright. For instance, real wages in Japan fell nearly 2 per cent in 2009, while wages in the Philippines and Malaysia fell by more than 4 per cent in 2008 and in Thailand they fell by almost 2 per cent in 2009, the ILO said. Globally, growth in average monthly wages slowed from 2.8 per cent in 2007 to 1.5 per cent in 2008 and 1.6 per cent in 2009. "This study shows another face of the lingering employment crisis," said ILO Director-General Juan Somavia. "The recession has not only been dramatic for the millions who lost their jobs, but has also affected those who remained in employment by severely reducing their purchasing power and their general well-being." The report - the second issued by the ILO on wages since 2008 - noted a "growing disconnect between productivity growth and wages, as well as widespread and growing wage inequality." Many countries have seen an increase in their share of low-wage employment in the past 15 years, including Australia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand and the Philippines. "In China, migrant workers are more than three times as likely to be low paid than local workers," the report said. It warned "there is a risk that a large number of people will feel left behind. This, in turn, may lead to increased social tensions, particularly if certain groups of people consider that they have paid a high price during the crisis while the benefits of the earlier expansionary period - and perhaps future recovery - have been unevenly shared." The ILO report analyzed data from 115 countries and territories, covering 94 per cent of the approximately 1.4 billion wage earners worldwide.
