Sotto backs P1,000 minimum wage for Metro Manila workers

Vice presidential candidate Senate President Vicente Sotto III. Lacson-Sotto media bureau

TUGUEGARAO, Cagayan — Senate President Vicente Sotto III, who is running for vice president in the May polls, is pushing to nearly double the minimum wage of private-sector workers in Metro Manila.

According to him, a P1,000 daily minimum wage for Metro Manila workers could help cushion the impact of soaring oil prices brought about by the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

“If it were up to me, in these trying times, dapat ang minimum wage [should be] P1,000,” Sotto told reporters in an interview here.

The vice-presidential candidate is apparently backing the call of the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TCUP) to raise the minimum wage of private-sector workers in Metro Manila to P1,007.

The TUCP on Monday filed a petition seeking a P470-wage increase from the current P500-P537 minimum pay per day in the National Capital Region (NCR).

In asking for a wage hike, TUCP noted the price adjustments of commodities and the increasing oil costs in their call. Citing the Ateneo Policy Center, the group said that daily food requirement amounts to P734 for a family of four, P917.50 for a family of five, or P61.17 per meal per person.

Sotto’s running mate, however, is leaving the decision on the matter up to the regional wage boards.

Presidential candidate Senator Panfilo Lacson noted that the needs of workers in some regions are different from those in other regions.

“Hindi natin dapat tignan in terms of real wages. Tignan natin ang living wage kasi doon nagma-matter kung sino ang nangangailangan at sino ang hindi,” Lacson said.

(We must not look at it in terms of real wages. Let us look at the living wage per region because it matters how much wage increase is needed.)

Lacson and Sotto headed to Northern Luzon this week in a bid to woo voters in the region.

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