P15 wage increase granted to Region XI private workers — DoLE

Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz yesterday announced that the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in Region XI (Davao region) in Mindanao has granted a P15 wage hike in the daily minimum wage of workers in the private sector.

The labor chief said the RTWPB-Region XI, after determining the need to restore the lost purchasing power of minimum wage earners in the Davao region for them to cope with the rising cost of living but without impairing the productivity and viability of business and industry in the region, issued Wage Order No. RB XI-17 for providing a new minimum wage rate.

“The wage order integrates into the basic wage the cost of living allowance of P15 provided for under a previous wage order, Wage Order No. RB XI-16, and provides for a P15 cost of living allowance, P5 of which will take effect after the issuance of the new wage order and the balance of P10 to take effect on May 1, 2012,” Baldoz said.

The wage order brings to 10 the RTWPBs that have issued Wage Orders in 2011. These are NCR, Regions III, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, Caraga and ARMM. The amounts of wage increases ordered by these RTWPBs ranged from P10 per day (ARMM) to P22 per day (NCR), and mostly in the form of cost-of-living allowances, except in Regions VII, IX and XIII.

Based on Wage Order No. RB XI-17, minimum wage earners in the non-agriculture sector in Davao region will now receive P291daily wage, while workers in the agriculture sector will receive a daily wage of P281.

On the other hand, retail/service workers in companies with more than 10 workers will receive P291 daily pay, while those in establishments with not more than 10 workers will get P260 in daily pay, after the wage order takes effect.

Effective May 1, 2012, workers in the non-agriculture sector will have a new minimum wage of P301, while those in the non-agriculture sector will receive P291 in daily wage. The daily rate for workers in establishments with more than 10 workers will by then receive P301 daily pay, while those in companies with less than 10 workers will receive P270 in daily pay.

The wage order provides that the prescribed wage rates apply to all workers and employees in the private sector receiving the minimum wage regardless of position, designation, or status of employment and irrespective of the method by which their wages are paid.

It does not cover household or domestic helpers, family drivers, persons employed in the personal service of another, and workers in registered Barangay Micro Business Enterprises. –Mina Diaz, Daily Tribune