587,000 Metro Manila wage earners to get P15 increase

MANILA, Philippines – Over half a million minimum wage workers in Metro Manila will benefit from the newly approved P15 wage increase, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said the other day.

DOLE-National Capital Region (NCR) director Alex Avila said 587,000 minimum wage earners will receive the wage increase starting April and will continue to be exempted from paying income tax.

“Because of the wage hike, the take home pay of minimum wage earners will increase by 3.2 percent and they will also enjoy higher 13th month pay and increased social security coverage,” Avila noted.

The daily minimum wage in the non-agricultural sector is now pegged at P481 and P444 for workers in the agricultural sector.

The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in NCR approved a new wage order to augment the income of minimum wage earners and boost productivity. An employer who shall not comply with the new wage order shall be penalized.

However, the wage order does not cover domestic helpers, family drivers and workers of duly registered Barangay Micro Business Enterprises.

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RTWPB also said the new wage hike does not prevent any person from bargaining for higher salaries with their respective employers.

The wage board removed from the list of establishments that may apply for exemption from the wage order, those with assets that do not exceed P3 million. Only distressed establishments, companies employing not more than 10 workers and those adversely affected by natural calamities may apply for exemptions as determined by the RTWPB.

Avila expressed confidence that business establishments in Metro Manila could afford the additional cost in operations brought about by the salary increase of workers.

“We see the significant improvements in economic indicators will not be affected by the new minimum wage order, but instead continue until the end of the year,” Avila noted.

Organized labor, however, expressed disappointment over the P15 wage hike because the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines earlier filed a formal petition seeking a P136 across-the-board increase in the daily wage of workers in Metro Manila.

Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) said the latest round of salary hike was insulting to workers and unlikely to stop the protests against the Aquino administration.

“The pay hike is too meager compared with the amount needed daily by a workers’ family to live decently. If Aquino thinks this wage hike will weaken workers’ protests calling for his resignation, then he is sorely mistaken,“ KMU said in a statement.

KMU chair Elmer Labog noted that the wage hike is insufficient to cover for the recently approved increases in the fares for Metro Rail Transit and Light Rail Transit and for the planned increases in fares for the Philippine National Railways. –Mayen Jaymalin (The Philippine Star) with Rhodina Villanueva, Sheila Crisostomo