Zubiri says workers need additional P100 wage hike amid rising cost of goods
MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said on Monday that workers’ daily wages need to be bumped up by an additional P100 for the country’s labor force to feel the actual impact of a wage hike amid the high cost of basic goods.
While the senator welcomed the decision of the regional wage board for the National Capital Region to greenlight the P40 daily wage hike, Zubiri asserted that the increase was not enough.
“Definitely we need at least P100 increase per day to make a big impact on the labor force. P40 cannot even buy one kilo of rice,” Zubiri said in Filipino.
“My take is that we need at least P100 pesos (more) on top of the P40 minimum wage hike," he added.
Zubiri said that an “across-the-board” increase for workers in other regions is also crucial to help minimum wage earners cope with the high cost of water and electricity.
“What is the difference between the laborers in Mindanao with the laborers in Manila? When the price of rice is the same, electricity is even more expensive, the cost of living is also expensive,” Zubiri added.
According to the National Wages and Productivity Commission, workers in NCR receive the highest daily minimum wage rate at P573 to P610. Meanwhile, workers in other regions earn less, with daily minimum wages ranging from P306 to P470.
Zubiri also cited as an example the minimum wage earners working at the Senate such as "elevator ladies" and security guards as among those who would not feel the impact of the P40 increase.
“By the time they get their salaries, the P40 increase would have already been cut down by payments to SSS, Pag-ibig and Philhealth. So they don’t really feel the change at all,” Zubiri said. “We need to increase that.”
Senate labor panel chairperson Jinggoy Estrada has vowed to prioritize the discussion of pending bills proposing higher wage rate adjustments, one of which is seeking to increase the daily minimum wage of all private sector workers by P150.
RELATED: P150 minimum wage hike inches forward in Senate
The approved P40 wage increase is slated to take effect on July 16 and is seen to directly benefit approximately 1.1 million minimum wage earners in Metro Manila, according to the Department of Labor and Employment.
An estimated 1.5 million full-time wage and salary workers earning above the minimum wage may also indirectly benefit through adjustments made at the enterprise level to address wage distortions, the labor department added. — with reports by Kristine Bersamina
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