MANILA, Philippines (Updated 6:29 p.m.) — Government workers can expect higher wages this August, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said Monday.
The national and local budget circular, Panagdaman said, has been signed and will be published in the coming days. It will help agencies covered by the wage increase to compute the new salaries.
“Pwede na po silang mag-adjust, agad-agad po,” Pangandaman said at a press briefing. (They can adjust immediately.)
The department chief, however, said the exact date of implementation depends on how fast agencies are able to compute and carry out the new wages.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. issued Executive Order 64 in August. The EO increased government salaries for civilian government personnel in the executive, legislative, and judicial branches, constitutional commissions and offices, as well as government owned or controlled corporations.
Local government units are expected to implement heightened rates proportional to their class and financial capacity. The EO does not apply to military and uniformed personnel, as well as employees who are under contract of service or job orders.
Pangandaman explained that agencies like the military have different salary structures, hence their exclusion from the EO.
Schedule of wage hike, allowances. For the national government, the raise will be implemented in four tranches, with the first tranche being implemented retroactively on Jan. 1, 2024. The second tranche begins Jan. 1, 2025, the third tranche will begin Jan. 1, 2026, and the final tranche will start on January 1, 2027.
The salary increase for 2025 has already been accounted for in the National Expenditure Program, Pangandaman said.
The EO was enacted in a bid to make government salaries more competitive than that of the private sector’s. It also aimed to address the rampant inflation felt by government employees.
In addition to the wage hike, the EO also mandates a medical allowance of P7,000 per annum, beginning 2025.
The latest round of salary standardization spells good news for public teachers, who have long clamored for a salary hike.
According to Pangandaman, entry level teaching positions (Teacher I) will have be Salary Grade (SG) 11 or a wage of P28,521 with this year's tranche.
Teacher II will have SG 12 or P30,705 and Teacher III will have SG 13 or P32,870. Philstar.com reached out to the Department of Education to ask if it will still pursue a separate salary hike on top of EO 64 but the agency said that it leaves the decision to Congress. — with reports from Cristina Chi