Metro Manila workers need P1,000 daily pay to survive – TUCP
In this file photo taken in 2018, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) is proposing to increase the minimum wage of workers in Metro Manila. (FILE PHOTO /Philippine Daily Inquirer)
MANILA, Philippines — Minimum wage earners in Metro Manila should receive a daily pay of at least P1,000 to cope with price shocks and avert hunger, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said on Monday.
But a presidential adviser said such proposals will need “some time” for further study, since only “large corporations” can afford an increased pay for their workers.
The TUCP petitioned the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board of Metro Manila to increase the daily minimum wage by P470 from the current P537, which was last adjusted in November 2018.
That proposal would hike the daily wage of more than 5 million minimum wage earners in the National Capital Region (NCR) to P1,007.
“Workers will find themselves dying of hunger and malnourishment if the minimum wage is not increased,” warned the TUCP.
‘Skyrocketing prices’
Last week, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III ordered all wage boards nationwide to study the possibility of increasing the daily minimum pay for workers.
Current minimum wages in the regions, which range from P282 to P420, took effect between 2018 and 2020.
Bello said the “skyrocketing prices of oil products caused by the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine may be a compelling ground for the wage boards to recommend adjustments in the minimum wages of workers.”
Other proposals include that of labor group Kilusang Mayo Uno, which pressed anew its 2019 petition to set the minimum wage in NCR at P750.
The Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives also wants P750, but this time as a uniform daily minimum wage nationwide.
Adjusted for inflation
The TUCP said it based its proposed increase on the workers’ minimum food and nonfood requirements, as well as on inflation.
A minimum wage earner’s daily take-home pay of P493, after mandatory deductions, has a value of P454 when adjusted for inflation, the labor confederation said.
Thus, a monthly take-home pay of P13,962 for minimum wage earners in NCR only has a purchasing power of P12,844, the group noted.
That take-home pay is “far below” the official poverty threshold for a family of five in the capital region, which is P16,625 monthly, the TUCP said.
“Our minimum wage earners and their families have fallen from the category of low-income to newly poor,” said TUCP president Raymond Mendoza.
“There is an urgent need for the wage board to act on our petition immediately. This is a race against time for the survival of millions of workers and their families who fell through the cracks and became the newly poor of our society,” he added.
But Presidential Adviser for Entrepreneurship Joey Concepcion said only big companies that managed to hold on during the COVID-19 pandemic would be able to afford wage hikes.
“Of course, the large corporations can afford it more, but the small to medium enterprises, they will have … difficulty because they were the ones that were really affected,” he said at Monday’s Laging Handa briefing.
Microenterprises
Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr., president of the Employers Confederation of the Philippines, said at Saturday’s Laging Handa briefing that a new hike might affect about 90 percent of businesses, which he noted were mostly microenterprises that could not even provide last year’s 13th month pay to their workers.
Concepcion said that instead of raising minimum wages, businessmen would rather observe how high oil prices would go up while the government steps in to control inflation through other means, such as the removal of excise on fuel and the distribution of financial aid to affected sectors.
“I think we are not yet sure about the prices [of fuel] because the increase is sudden due to the conflict. Now, if the conflict is resolved, then all [prices of] commodities will go down,” he said, referring to the fighting in Ukraine which threatens to spill over its borders and expand the war.
He argued that “if we increase the wage, what’s been given can no longer be withdrawn. So I think the government and the private sector will have to [hold] more discussions here.”
“We’re not saying this [wage hike] is not going to happen. I’m just saying, let us give it some time. It’s [been] brought forward, so we’ll see what its impact will be to the businessman … So we have to compute what is the effective increase [for] the average worker,” Concepcion said.
In a statement on Sunday, Albay Rep. Joey Salceda warned against a further rise in bread prices as the conflict in Ukraine drags on.
“We already expect some 1.3 million Filipinos to become poorer as a result of higher oil prices this year. Hunger may become more pervasive, too, if wheat price increases do not see some abatement over the coming weeks,” warned Salceda, the House tax chief.
—WITH A REPORT FROM NESTOR CORRALES
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