Central Visayas minimum wage earners to get P22 wage hike

MANILA, Philippines—The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board for Central Visayas has announced that the region’s workers will get a P22-wage hike starting December 7.

This raises the region’s minimum wage rate in non-agriculture sectors to P327 and in non-sugar agriculture (i.e. animal husbandry, poultry, rice farming, fisheries, coconut, etc.) to P309 in Class A areas including the cities of Carcar, Cebu, Danao, Lapu-lapu, Mandaue, Naga, Talisay, and the municipalities of Compostela, Consolacion, Cordova, Liloan, Minglanilla, San Fernando or Expanded Metro Cebu.

In Class B areas such as Toledo, Bogo and the rest of municipalities in Cebu Province except Bantayan and Camotes Islands, the rates will be P307 in non-agriculture sector and P292 in non-sugar agriculture.

In cities and municipalities of Bohol and Negros Oriental provinces, the rates will be P297 for non-agriculture and P277 for non-sugar agriculture.

In the municipalities of Siquijor province, Bantayan, and Camotes Islands, the rates will be P282 for non-agriculture and 262 for non-sugar agriculture.

For sugar plantations, the new rate will be P277 across all areas.

For sugar mills, the new rate will be P297 across all areas.

The wage adjustments, which are mandated under Wage Order No. VII-17, apply to all minimum wage earners except household or domestic helpers, or persons in the personal service of another, including family drivers.

The board said it was encouraging companies to adopt productivity improvement programs such as Time and Motion Studies (TMS), 5S of Good Housekeeping, quality circles, Labor-Management Cooperation, as well as implement gainsharing schemes, to keep up with the rising labor cost.

It added that orientations on the proposed Two-Tiered Wage System are being conducted all over the region to educate the stakeholders about the said system and its planned implementation in the next wage orders. –Tina G. Santos, Philippine Daily Inquirer