In an effort to stem the continued tide of poor financial performance, Sony Corp said today that it will freeze workers' salaries this year. Unlike many Japanese companies, Sony does not automatically raise salaries each year based on seniority. Instead pay rises are set annually for each worker based on their role and performance.

"This time we decided to keep the workers' salaries unchanged," Sony spokeswoman Mami Imada said, ahead of the pay round for the financial year starting next month.

Sony said in January that pay for managers would drop by 10 to 20 percent through wage cuts and bonus reductions of 35 to 40 percent.

It's clear that the tech giant is continuing to struggle as manufacturing is slowing down along with exports for Japan.  This could be another indication that Sony cannot listen to the masses and drop the prices of its PlayStation 3 gaming consoles.  It seems the state of the world economy is now clearly in the drivers seat and forcing senior management to make some very tough decisions.

Loss-making Sony freeze wages [Reuters]