TOKYO, April 7 (Xinhua) -- Japan's real wages dropped 1.2 percent in February from a year earlier, falling for the second straight month due to higher inflation, government data showed Monday.

The decline of inflation-adjusted real wages, a barometer of consumer purchasing power, followed a revised 2.8 percent drop in January, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said in a preliminary report.

Nominal wages, or the average total monthly cash earnings per worker, including base and overtime pay, rose 3.1 percent to 289,562 yen (about 1,981 U.S. dollars), up for the 38th consecutive month, the data showed.

Regular pay, or base salary, gained 1.6 percent in February, slowing from a 2.1 percent rise in January, while overtime pay, a barometer of corporate activity strength, went up 2.2 percent in February, after a revised 1.5 percent growth in January.

The report comes as domestic companies have agreed to raise pay by an average of 5.42 percent in this year's annual labor talks, the biggest pay hike in more than 30 years, according to the Japanese Trade Union Confederation, or Rengo, the largest labor union organization in Japan.

The effect of Japan's annual spring wage talks usually starts to show up in wage data for April or later. Enditem

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