THE Regional Tripartite Wages Productivity Board (RTWPB) Cordillera has approved a wage order number 19 increasing the minimum wage rate of workers in the region.
Minimum wage in Baguio City and the capital town of La Trinidad in Benguet province will increase by P20, while in other areas in the region, it will increase by P30. At least 57,000 minimum wage earners in the private sector will benefit from the increases.
This will make the minimum wage in Baguio and La Trinidad P320; P315 in Tabuk City, Kalinga; Bangued, Abra; Bontoc, Bauko, and Sagada in Mountain Province; Lagawe and Banaue in Ifugao; Buguias, Itogon, Mankayan, Tuba, and Tublay in Benguet; and P300 in all other areas in Cordillera.
This is in addition to the P5.82 per day increase in other monetary benefits to the employees.
Wage Order RB-CAR-19 was an initiative of RTWPB-CAR in the absence of any petition filed by any party seeking for a wage increase.
Ezequiel Ronnie Guzman, Department of Labor and Employment-Cordillera officer-in-charge, said the new wage order was responsive to the needs of the workers in the region with close to 200,000 benefiting from the wage order having an 86 percent compliance rate in its implementation.
Guzman explained in determining the amount of the wage increase, the board considered the interest of the workers, the general capacity of the business establishments to pay, and the competitiveness of the wage compared with those in the other regions of the country.
The labor sector earlier asked for an increase of P45 to P50 per day, while management asked for P15 to P20.
Cordillera is one of the nine regions in the country where minimum wages had been adjusted this year. The others were Regions 1, 3, 4A, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 12.
Cordillera RTWPB’s order will cover all workers in the private sector receiving minimum wage in the region, regardless of positions, designations, status, and the method their wages are paid.
But this excludes domestic and household helpers, persons employed in the personal service of another, and the barangay micro-business enterprises (BMBE) with certificates of authority issued by the Department of Trade and Industry under the BMBE law. (With a report from PNA)