Report: Sony freezing salaries

Considering Sony's expectations of posting a $2.9 billion operating loss for its current fiscal year (which ends March 31), it's no surprise that the electronics giant is looking to save money anywhere it can.

According to a Financial Times report today, the corporation's latest attempt to control costs is a wage freeze for the company's non-managerial Japanese staff. The venerable British finance daily reports that this is the first time in the company's history that it has instituted such salary constraints. Additionally, Sony plans to cut the average bonus payment for some of its staff by 35 percent.

Moves like these are increasingly being made by Japanese companies in an effort to avoid laying off full-time staff in Japan. As the Financial Times explains, "Most of these [Japanese] staff were given the implicit promise of a 'job for life' and rising wages."

Unfortunately, Sony broke the aforementioned promise to many in December, when it announced it was cutting 8,000 salaried positions worldwide, including in Japan. (A further 8,000 temporary positions were also eliminated.) That move came a year after the company announced that it was ceasing development and production of the Cell Processor that powers the PlayStation 3.