The P31 wage hike for workers in Central Visayas is set to take effect today.
The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-Region 7 said this is the biggest wage hike they have approved in decades,
“This is the highest amount we have issued in Region 7 in 33 years. The highest previously was P25 in 1989,” OIC board secretary Evita Mendoza-Balane was quoted as saying in a Rappler report.
Be that as it may, it is still a pittance when compared to how many times the prices of basic goods as well as fuel have risen recently. Some are also citing the bigger wage increase in Western Visayas.
Of course, there are those who are more than willing to accept such an increase. “It is better than nothing,” they would probably say, and they will probably be right.
We want our workers to get more, but we also understand why the increase was limited to such an amount.
From the viewpoint of the workers it is always easy to demand for more from their employers, and it’s not hard to see why; almost everything is more expensive these days.
However, from the employers’ point of view, especially for the smaller firms, this is also a hard pill to swallow. We should not forget that many businesses are still picking up the pieces from almost two years of lockdowns and restrictions because of the global pandemic. Some businesses barely survived, but others didn’t survive at all.
And just when everything looked rosy, there was the war in Ukraine that pushed up pump prices, leading to a cascade of increases.
While wage hikes may be easy to implement for companies that weathered the hard times better, or firms that can easily pass on the burden of this cost to their customers, it is not so easy for the smaller companies or employers.
Yes, our workers do deserve more in pay, but it’s also a hard fact of life that many businesses are still getting back on their feet even as they are being battered by a new crisis.