NCR workers to get P21 wage hike

MANILA, Philippines — Minimum wage workers in the National Capital Region (NCR)  stand to receive a P21 increase in their daily salary after the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) approved the adjustment on Thursday.

This means that the existing P491 daily minimum salary for more than six million minimum wage earners in 17 cities and municipalities in Metro Manila will rise to P512.

Based on Wage Order NCR-21, the minimum wage for those in non-agricultural sector shall be P512 or P502 for basic wage plus P10 for cost of living allowance (COLA). 

Those in the agricultural sector shall be entitled to P475, composed of the P465 basic wage and the P10 COLA.

“The wage rates shall apply to all minimum wage earners in the private sector in the region regardless of their position, designation, or status of employment and irrespective of the method of which they are paid,” the board said.

Not covered by the wage order are domestic workers, persons in the personal service of another, and workers in Barangay Micro Business Enterprises.

The wage order was issued after three petitions were filed at the RTWPB-NCR: the Association of Minimum Wage Earners and Advocates for a P175 wage increase; Trade Union Congress of the Philippines ,P259; and the Associated Labor Unions or ALU, P184.

The order will take effect 15 days after its publication in a newspaper of general circulation.

The last wage order in the region took effect in June 2016, wherein the wage board approved the integration of the P15 COLA to the basic wage and the. granting of the P10 COLA per day.

According to ALU spokesman Alan Tanjusay, they will no longer question or appeal the new rates,  although they are “indequate.”

He said that, instead, they have asked President Duterte to give each minimum wage worker a monthly subsidy of P500 or P16 a day “to help them cope with the rising cost of living.”  

This is similar to the “conditional cash transfer-like cash voucher subsidy” provided to poor Filipinos.