TUCP: Living wage is P12,517/month

THE TRADE Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) on Sunday justified its demand for a P154 increase in daily minimum wage in Metro Manila, saying the current wage of P481 was not enough to lift workers out of poverty.

TUCP Nagkaisa spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said that considering inflation and its impact on the purchasing power, the real value of the daily minimum wage was actually only P315.56, way below  the government’s P417-a-day estimated poverty threshold for a family to cope with the cost of living.

Tanjusay said that on a monthly basis, the real wage value was P9,467 a month, way below the P12,517 monthly income needed to meet the basic food needs of a family of five based on the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI).

The requirements include nonfood needs such as clothing, housing, transportation, health and education to ensure that one remains economically and socially productive.

He cited Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) estimates in March that the number of workers whose wage value fell below the poverty threshold reached 7.879 million.

The TUCP said it would also file minimum wage increase petitions for workers in Region 4A as well as the provinces of Cebu, Davao and Cagayan de Oro.

Red alert warning

“We are raising a red alert warning to employers and the government to immediately address the disparity between the minimum standard required for a family to survive and the current real value of the highest minimum wage,” said Tanjusay.

“The wage boards must convene immediately to bring quality relief to workers unable to cope with the rising cost of living due to their inadequate salaries,” he added.

He said a minimum wage lower than the poverty threshold affected production due to insufficient nutrition and stress.

“If this low quality of life is not acted upon, there will be more perpetrators and victims of all sorts of crime, more Filipinos would opt to work abroad, and it would breed a host of social problems,” said Tanjusay.

The TUCP filed its petition to bring the daily minimum wage up to P635  with the Metro Manila wage board on Thursday.

He said a P154 wage increase would merely restore the P481 to its real value.

Last year, the TUCP filed a P136 wage increase petition for minimum wage earners in Metro Manila but the DOLE-NCR approved only  P15.

The one-year prescriptive period of the last wage increase expired on April 4, thus the need to seek a new wage increase to make the salary of Metro Manila workers more realistic, he said.