Japan's biggest labor group says firms across the country have agreed to an average pay increase of more than 5 percent for the second straight year.



The Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo, announced the results of spring wage talks with 760 companies that had responded by Friday morning.



Officials say the average monthly pay increase is 17,828 yen, or about 120 dollars. That includes both regular raises and increases to monthly base pay.



The figure is a gain of 5.46 percent. It's higher than last year, when the average increase topped 5 percent for the first time in 33 years.



The figure was slightly less at the 351 small and midsized firms with less than 300 employees. These companies have agreed to an average raise of 5.09 percent.



That falls some way short of the 6-percent target set by Rengo, which is aiming to narrow the gap in wage hikes between large and smaller firms.



Rengo President Yoshino Tomoko says: "The preliminary figures suggest the gap in wage increases between large companies and smaller ones has narrowed. But negotiations for smaller firms are still going. They'll continue until around April and May, so we'll keep supporting them until then."



Yoshino said she's keen to see the trend of pay hikes continue into next year and beyond.