Worker wants to know if employer paying right compensation

Dear PAO,
I have been working for a private company for over a year now. My salary is computed on a monthly basis. The company, in computing my monthly salary, multiplies 26 days to the minimum wage, but I think that I am not properly compensated since there are months, which have 31 days. Please clarify to me the manner of computing the salary of a monthly-paid employee.
Employee X

Dear Employee X,
A monthly-paid employee is one whose salary includes payments for every day of the month although he does not regularly work on his rest day, Sundays, regular and special holidays. On the other hand, a “daily-paid” employee is one who is paid on the days he actually worked except unworked regular holidays when he is present or on leave of absence with pay on the working day immediately preceding the legal holiday (IN RE: United South Dockholders, Inc., Opinion of the Bureau of Working Conditions, 23 November 1987).

This monthly salary shall serve as compensation “for all days in the month whether worked or not,” and “irrespective of the number of working days therein.”  In other words, whether the month is of 30 or 31 days’ duration, or 28 or 29 (as in February), the employee is entitled to receive the entire monthly salary. So, too, in the event of the declaration of any special holiday, or any fortuitous cause precluding work on any particular day or days (such as transportation strikes, riots, or typhoons or other natural calamities), the employee is entitled to the salary for the entire month and the employer has no right to deduct the proportionate amount corresponding to the days when no work was done. The monthly compensation is evidently intended precisely to avoid computations and adjustments resulting from the contingencies just mentioned which are routinely made in the case of workers paid on daily basis (Wellington Investment and Manufacturing Corporation v Cresenciano B. Trajano, Undersecretary of Labor and Employment, Elmer Abadilla, et.al. G.R. 114698 July 3, 1995).

As a monthly paid employee, it is not correct to say that you are not properly compensated for months that have 31 days since the basis for the computation of your salary is not the actual days you have worked, but rather it is based on the number of days in a month, inclusive of rest day, Sunday, regular and special holidays, whether or not you have worked on such days.

We would suggest that you address your concern to accounting or finance department of the company where you are working. The officers therein are in the best position to explain how they are computing your monthly salary.

We hope that we have answered your queries. We wish to remind you that the above legal opinion is solely based on the facts you have narrated and our appreciation of the same. The opinion may vary when other facts are changed or elaborated. –Persida Acosta, Manila Times

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