THE House of Representatives approved on third and final reading a proposed measure seeking a P200 daily minimum wage increase for workers in the private sector.
The chamber approved the measure, which garnered 171 yes votes, one no vote and no abstention during the plenary session Wednesday, June 4, 2025.
In a statement, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines party-list Representative Raymond Democrito Mendoza expressed elation for the historic passage of the proposed measure, which will be the first legislated wage hike in 36 years since 1989.
He said the measure will benefit over five million minimum wage earners and their families, lifting them out of poverty.
“The country's largest labor center TUCP now calls on the Senate and House leadership to immediately convene the bicameral conference committee to reconcile their respective versions—P100 from the Senate, P200 from the House—and produce a final enrolled bill with utmost urgency and resolve,” said Mendoza.
“I appeal to all my fellow bicam conferees—my counterparts in the Senate and my colleagues in the House—let us get this done, and get it done now. We are way past the stage of whether we will pass a legislated wage hike, but how much that wage hike will be. For us workers, of course, the answer is clear: the higher, the better. But regardless of whether it ends up closer to P100 or P200, this will be the most significant wage increase in nearly four decades which no obsolete broken regional wage board has and can ever come close to matching,” he added.
In July 2024, the Senate approved on third and final reading a bill calling for a P100 across-the-board minimum wage increase for workers in the private sector.
The upper and lower chamber will reconcile the two measures in a bicameral conference before it will be submitted to President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. for approval. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)