Workers in 9 regions to get pay hike

MANILA, Philippines — Minimum wage earners in nine regions will get a salary increase, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) announced yesterday.

The wage boards in Cagayan Valley, Calabarzon, Western Visayas, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Zamboanga peninsula, Davao, Soccksargen and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao recently approved salary increases ranging from P9 to P56 per day, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello said.

Workers in Zamboanga peninsula will get the highest increase at P56.43 while Calabarzon workers will get only P9.45. The average pay hike is P20.

“The need of the workers and the capacity of the employers to pay as well as the economic conditions in the regions were among the factors considered in approving the new wage orders,” Labor Undersecretary Ciriaco Lagunzad said.

Lagunzad said the wage boards in Bicol and the Cordillera Autonomous Region are also expected to approve salary increases not later than August.

“The remaining six regions whose wage orders have yet to reach their anniversary dates are assessing the socio-economic condition in their respective areas through consultations,” Lagunzad added.

He said consultations on petitions for a wage increase for Metro Manila workers would start next week.

Minimum wage earners in Central Luzon will get a P20 increase, which would raise their daily take home pay to P400 effective Aug. 1. 

However, in Aurora, the increase will be implemented in two tranches – P10 on Aug. 1 and P10 in February next year.

“The new minimum wage will vary across industries as indicated in the matrix specified in the order and its implementing rules,” Zenaida Angara-Campita, DOLE-Central Luzon director, said.

The Associated Labor Unions (ALU), which sought an increase of P120, said the pay hikes are ”insufficient.”

“The wage adjustments fail to push minimum wage workers and their families out of poverty due to the very high inflation,” ALU spokesman Alan Tanjusay said. – With Ding Cervantes