More than half of big Japanese companies are planning to raise wages this year, according to a Reuters monthly poll, meeting a key request from Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to help workers cope with surging consumer prices. Kishida’s administration has repeatedly urged companies to make maximum efforts to lift employee pay, which has failed to keep up with the fastest inflation in 40 years. That push was boosted last week when Uniqlo operator Fast Retailing Co said it would raise wages by as much as 40%. Ahead of spring labour negotiations, managers at 24% of the companies polled said they planned on across-the-board bumps in base salary along with regularly scheduled wage increases. Another 29% said they would carry out regular pay increases only, while 38% were undecided. A total of 34% of firms said they planned wage increases of at least 3%, a jump from 10% in a Reuters survey in October.

While the survey focused on large corporations, the outlook remains less rosy for small and medium-sized firms that provide most jobs in the world’s third-largest economy. Smaller firms generally cannot increase pay, business owners, economists and officials say, because they often struggle to pass on higher costs out of fear of losing customers.