THE National Capital Region (NCR) Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) has approved a P40 salary increase for minimum wage earners in private sectors.
The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said in a statement on Thursday, June 29, 2023, that the RTWPB issued Wage Order No. NCR-24, which grants the daily salary adjustment on June 26.
The adjustment will bring the daily minimum wage in Metro Manila from P570 to P610 for the non-agriculture sector and from P533 to P573 for the agriculture sector, service and retail establishments with 15 or less workers and manufacturing establishments regularly employing less than 10 workers.
The order will take effect on July 16, 2023.
“The wage order is expected to directly benefit 1.1 million minimum wage earners in NCR. About 1.5 million full-time wage and salary workers earning above the minimum wage may also indirectly benefit as a result of upward adjustments at the enterprise level arising from the correction of wage distortion,” the DOLE said.
However, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri and Senate committee on labor chairman Jinggoy Estrada said the wage hike approved by the board is not enough.
In March, Zubiri filed a bill seeking a P150 salary increase for all the workers in the private sector across the country.
Estrada said that while it is a welcome development for workers, it “may not be sufficient to achieve a living wage in the National Capital Region.”
“Our workers need and deserve wage hikes to cope with the ongoing rise in the prices of basic goods and commodities,” he said.
“This does not mean that bills proposing adjustments in workers’ wage rates, which are currently pending before my committee on labor, will be put on the back burner,” he added.
He vowed to look into legislative proposals related to the matter once Congress resumes regular session in July.
At the House of Representatives, House Bill 7568, which seeks and across-the-board wage hike of P750 for all employees in the private sector, was filed by Gabriela Women's Party Representative Arlene Brosas, ACT Teachers Representative France Castro, and Kabataan Representative Raoul Manuel “to close the gap between the current minimum wage and the calculated family living wage across regions.”
In a statement, the labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno expressed discontent with the P40 wage hike.
“Daragdagan lamang ng P40 ang minimum wage sa NCR, lubhang napakalayo sa nakabubuhay na sahod, ni wala man lamang kalahati sa mga halagang isinampa ng mga manggagawa sa wage petitions,” the group said.
(The minimum wage in NCR will only be increased by P40, which is significantly far from a livable wage and not even half of the amounts requested by the workers in their wage petitions.)
The group expressed support for Zubiri's proposal for a P150 wage hike, as well as the proposed measure in the lower chamber. (SunStar Philippines)