Workers in 3 regions to get P30 daily wage hike

GOOD FOR BUSINESS | Baguio City, shown with its Sunday crowd in this September 2022 photo, is the trade and economic center of the Cordillera region. The return of tourists to Baguio and the rest of the Cordillera is good for business owners and their workers who will soon enjoy an increase in their daily wage rates. (File photo by EV ESPIRITU / Inquirer Northern Luzon)

MANILA, Philippines — More than 150,000 minimum wage earners in three more regions were granted a daily pay hike of P30 after the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) approved the wage petitions in the Cordillera, Bicol, and Eastern Visayas regions.

Domestic workers, or “kasambahay,” are also set to receive a wage increase, a range of P400 to P1,000, depending on the region where they are working.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, the NWPC said the minimum wage rates for private sector workers, regardless of position and employment status, in the Cordillera would be set at P430 per day.

Domestic workers, on the other hand, will get a monthly pay of P4,900, an increase of P400.

The new minimum pay rates in the Cordillera, which will take effect on Dec. 5, were based on the Nov. 6 wage order issued motu proprio (on its own initiative) by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board.

The wage board in Eastern Visayas also released motu proprio a Nov. 6 wage order granting a P30 wage hike, bringing to P405 the minimum pay of workers in the nonagriculture sector and of those in retail or service businesses with at least 11 employees.

The new order, which will take effect on Nov. 30, also increased to P375 the minimum pay of workers in the cottage, handicraft and agriculture industries, and those employed in the retail and service establishments with 10 workers or less.

Domestic workers were granted a monthly pay increase of P500, raising the rates of those in chartered cities and first-class municipalities to P5,500, and those in other regions to P5,000.

P5,000 for ‘kasambahay’

Those working in private establishments in all industries in Bicol will take home a daily pay of P395, while kasambahay in households in the region will receive a monthly salary of P5,000, or a raise of P1,000. These rates take effect on Dec. 1.

The new wage orders, coming more than a year after the last wage adjustments, are seen to benefit 150,484 private sector workers and some 163,000 in the three regions.

The NWPC said businesses in the retail or service industries with up to only 10 workers as well as those affected by natural or human-induced disasters could apply for exemption from the new wage orders.

It also noted that barangay microbusiness enterprises were not covered by the minimum wage rates.

—WITH A REPORT FROM JOEY GABIETA