The P35 daily minimum wage hike announced in Metro Manila just last Wednesday marked another salary increase under the Marcos administration—yet one that, similar to wage hikes across other regions, still fails to elevate minimum wages in the country to a livable standard.
The minimum wage rate across all regions averages at P444 per day, which falls short of the P1,210 needed to provide comfortably for a family of five, according to economic research group IBON Foundation’s estimates (see sidebar 1).
These figures pertain to nonagricultural jobs, as the minimum wage for agricultural workers is even lower.
IBON computed the family living wage, which accounts for food and non-food expenses and sufficient allowance for savings, based on data from the National Wages and Productivity Commission and June inflation rates reported by the Philippine Statistics Authority.
The National Capital Region’s (NCR) P645 minimum daily wage is already the highest in the country, resulting in at least a lower wage gap—the difference between the minimum wage and the family living wage per region—compared to other regions.
In IBON’s breakdown of the Metro Manila living wage for a family of five, food expenditure is the costliest at P13,542 per month (see sidebar 2). Contributing to these big expenses is the inflation rate for food and nonalcoholic beverages, which for June was at 6.1 percent across the country, higher than May’s by 0.3 percentage points.
Last year saw even higher inflation rates due to bigger price increases for food and nonalcoholic beverages, yet minimum wage hikes have averaged at only P35 since then.
Salary and wage work, supposedly a higher quality and steadier form of employment than informal work according to IBON, still leaves workers vulnerable to financial instability with these wage gaps.
And workers know this firsthand, with labor groups criticizing these meager wage hikes.
Labor group Unity for Wage Increase Now, for one, filed an appeal to NCR’s Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board to raise the minimum wage to P1,207 instead of the planned P645 upon the issuance of Wage Order No. NCR-25.
The regional wage board, with supervision from the national wage commission, decides the minimum salary rates for each region. Wage hikes are coursed through these boards, whether by their own initiative or petitions filed by labor groups and other concerned parties.
Wage hikes can, however, bypass the regional offices altogether if enacted into law. But the lower chamber is notoriously a roadblock for bills to raise minimum wages.
Multiple bills for nationwide wage hikes are still pending in the House of Representatives, with some having been stuck in limbo since 2022. For example, the Makabayan Bloc’s bill, which proposes a P750 wage hike across the board for employees in the private sector, has been pending since March 2023.
The Senate, on the other hand, approved a P100 minimum wage hike for private sector workers in February. But the bill is yet to be implemented as the House must first ratify a similar bill, which will then be reconciled with that of the Senate, for final approval from the President.
Though a P100 increase will not raise the minimum wage to the same amount as the family living wage, it is at least higher than any wage hikes that the regional offices have issued in the last year.
“Ipatupad ang taas sahod na aangkop sa family living wage. Insulto ang katiting na taas sahod sa manggagawang naghihikahos sa loob ng lumalalang krisis pang-ekonomiya,” said the labor group in a statement. ●
First published in the July 22, 2024 print edition of the Collegian
