Wage increase approved in 2 Visayas regions

Minimum wage earners in Metro Cebu, like these construction workers, will bring home a bigger pay check after the Central Visayas wage board approved a P13 increase. —TONEE DESPOJO

TACLOBAN CITY—Emmy Cabag has been working as a cashier in a retail store here for more than three years. She earned a minimum daily wage of P260, barely enough to meet her needs and those of her children.

But the 43-year-old single mother will receive an early Valentine’s gift on Feb. 13 after the wage board agreed to increase the minimum wage by P25.

“The increase will somehow give us some breathing space to buy some of our daily needs,” Cabag said.

The new wage adjustment, contained in Wage Order No. 19, was approved by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in Eastern Visayas  (RTWPB 8) in November last year. The order was approved by the national wage board only on Jan. 20 and will take effect this month after it is published in a regional newspaper.

The new wage increase, ranging from P10 to P25 depending on the sector and number of workers, will benefit Eastern Visayas’ more than 1.8 million workers.

The region’s daily wage rate of P260 was set in 2015.

Based on Wage Order No. 19, a P10 increase in wages will be implemented in establishments with 10 workers and below, P15 for those with 11 to 30 workers, and P25 for those with more than 30 workers.

Reynaldo Soliveres, RTWPB 8 secretary, said when the board decided motu proprio (on its own) to adjust wages, its prime consideration was not only the welfare of workers but also the capacity of business owners to absorb the increase since they also suffered losses when Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) devastated Eastern Visayas in 2013.

“We classified the industries and we provided corresponding increases based on the categories because … data from Neda (National Economic and Development Authority) and PSA (Philippine Statistics Authority) showed Region 8 had yet to fully recover from the onslaught of Yolanda,” Soliveres said.

In Cebu province, private sector workers in Metro Cebu will enjoy a P13 increase in minimum wage after the RTWPB in Central Visayas (RTWPB 7) on Monday agreed to adjust the wage rate.

Once the new wage order takes effect, the minimum daily wage in Metro Cebu will be pegged at P366 from the current P353.

Lawyer Ernesto Carreon,  RTWPB 7 labor representative, said the wage board will meet next week to decide if the increase will cover other areas in Central Visayas, specifically the provinces of Bohol, Siquijor and other parts of Cebu.

Carreon said some members argued that the increase should not cover other areas, like Bohol where workers were reportedly receiving a higher amount than workers in Butuan and Cagayan de Oro cities.

He said they also agreed to raise the minimum pay of housemaids from P2,500 monthly to P3,000 in Cebu City.

During a four-hour deliberation on Monday, the wage board rejected two petitions that sought a P100 increase in daily minimum wage.

Carreon said he pushed a P50 hike but was rejected since representatives of employers in the wage board did not want an increase.

He said he reminded other members of the board that they approved an adjustment of P13 after Yolanda hit most parts of the Visayas.

Carreon said it would be embarrassing if the board would not approve an increase, considering that the Visayas had recovered three years after the typhoon’s onslaught.