Wages? What about the work?
No sooner had President Duterte announced a five-percent wage hike for all government workers over three years than it is being barraged by criticisms as being too small and spread too thin. This not the first time any intended raise in government salaries is seen as not enough. Certainly it will not be the last.
It is difficult to argue against the inadequacy and insufficiency of pay for work in the Philippines, be it in government or the private sector. This is evident in the steady stream of Filipinos leaving family and home for better pay abroad. Times are perplexingly perpetually hard in the Philippines and this is exacerbated by pay that does not meet the need to live decently.
But this is not about pay in the sense that everybody could use a little raise. Everybody loves a raise. This is about pay in the sense that it is all talk about how little there is to go around in these hard times while there is complete silence of everyone on the matter of the work for which pay is given. There is simply too much focus on the pay while there is little or nothing on whether the pay is deserved for the work done.
Never mind the private sector because at least there the bar is higher. Higher pay is possible if higher standards of work are met. Not so in government. In government, workers have security of tenure. Mediocrity and inefficiency are almost never a ground for losing a government job, unlike in the private sector where sleeping on the job is a firing offense.
Sorry to all my many relatives and friends in government, but workers in government never had it so good despite claims of small pay. Small pay for so little work done inefficiently without fear of being fired is not something to complain about. Under such circumstances, a government worker is still so much better off than his private counterpart who must make do with only slightly higher pay for so much more work under more stringent standards.
Moreover, workers in government are literally swimming in bonuses, almost all of it undeserved. Again, sorry to my many relatives and friends in government, but in government the meaning of bonus has been screwed up. Before working in government, everybody knew the meaning of bonus as a reward for work done and done well and efficiently. Once in government, the new meaning of bonus is reward for simply being in government.
That is why a government bonus is given across the board, often in uniform amounts. Because instead of being a reward for work done well and honestly and efficiently, it is a reward for participating in the overall inefficiency of government, for turning a blind eye to the corrupt practices of officials. It is a reward for playing ball. It is a reward because, with taxes from the rest of us, there is temptingly so much lying around for spending.
And that is why I cannot understand why there is so much bellyaching about salaries and pay hikes being too small. Salaries and pay hikes are to me secondary. Let all the talk first begin with work. It is work that generates pay. Without work there is no pay. To those who complain about pay, let them talk work first. As to Carlos Zarate, the number one bellyacher in the land, hey congressman, aren't you living off on too much fat of the land?
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