Bello wants P6,000 minimum wage for all kasambahays

MANILA, Philippines — Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III floated Thursday a proposal to hike the minimum wage of kasambahays or household workers nationwide to P6,000 a month.

“[Having] housemaids, or kasambahays, is a luxury,” Bello said during the labor department’s year-end press conference. “So why would you cheap out on wages? The minimum wage should be P6,000 nationwide.”

“If you can’t give out P6,000, don’t get a housemaid. You clean your own house, you clean your own car, you bathe your own pets,” he added.

Currently, the minimum wage for domestic workers in Metro Manila is P5,000 a month, but this dips to as low as P2,000 for municipalities in the Davao region.

Bello said a P2,000 to P3,000 salary for household workers is “very meager.”

“You won’t even be able to buy a cell phone using that money,” he said.

Republic Act No. 10361, or the Domestic Workers Act, provides that the regional tripartite and productivity wage boards should periodically adjust the minimum wage rates of domestic workers.

The most recent adjustment was in the Soccsksargen region where domestic workers got a P1,500 hike in their monthly minimum wage.

However, wages in the Bicol and Davao regions have not been updated since 2017.

The Domestic Workers Act also mandates giving household workers at least one day off a week as well as leave benefits of five days a year. Household workers who have rendered at least one month of service are covered by the Social Security System, Philippine Health Insurance Corp, and the Pag-IBIG Fund.