Gov’t urged to match pay hike to living wage

MANILA, Philippines—As wage boards deliberate on a pay increase for Metro Manila workers, the research group Ibon on Tuesday called on the government to approximate the wage hike to the estimated family living wage, saying the value of the P382 minimum wage in the metropolis was now worth only P235.

Workers in the metropolis are expected to receive a salary increase this week, but the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) has hinted that this may be lower than the increases petitioned for by labor groups.

The moderate Trade Union Congress of the Philippines petitioned for an increase of P75, while unions affiliated with the militant Kilusang Mayo Uno have been calling for an adjustment of P125.

The NWPC defines the living wage as the amount of family income needed to provide for the family’s food and nonfood expenditures with sufficient allowance for savings and investments for social security.

According to the NWPC, the wage should enable the family to live and maintain a decent standard of human existence beyond mere subsistence level, taking into account all of the family’s physiological, social and other needs.

Family of six

The definition assumes that a family has six members on the average and that two family members are earning.

The NWPC website has stopped issuing its quarterly and annual computations of the family living wage. Ibon’s latest data from the agency is P917 for Metro Manila as of September 2008.

A statement from Sen. Ramon Revilla Jr. in April this year said the daily family living wage in the metropolis was P764 but it did not say where the data came from.

Based on 2000 prices, the minimum wage in Metro Manila has been reduced to P235 due to inflation and is worth less than the minimum wage of P250 in November 2000, Ibon said.

“By now the family living wage is likely already twice the daily minimum wage, and a P125 increase will not even make up for inflation that has eroded real incomes over the last three years” the research group said in a statement.

Because the minimum wage has been unchanged since September 2008, Ibon said Filipino workers were, in effect, bearing the burden of adjusting to the effects of the global economic crisis.

Minimum wages in the rest of the country have also been unchanged since 2008. These range from P196 in the Bicol region to P320 in the Calabarzon region that includes the provinces of Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon.

Record unemployment and dismally poor wages are among the reasons for the rising poverty incidence in recent years, and these are solid reasons for a wage increase of a decent level, Ibon said.

The group also highlighted the importance of shifting from a foreign investment-led and export-led growth model to a more equitable wage-consumption and domestically driven development path. –Jerome Aning, Philippine Daily Inquirer