Dole approves ‘historic’ P85 wage hike for NCR workers

HARD WORK, LOW PAY Construction workers, who continue to be paid about P60 per hour, install steel bars at a building in Pasay City in this file photo. —INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) on Tuesday approved a minimum wage hike of P85 for the National Capital Region (NCR), with the labor chief calling this a “historic” increase even as it elicited skepticism to disapproval from concerned stakeholders.

The increase granted by Dole’s Wage Order No. NCR-27 will be delivered in two tranches—P60 to be given on July 19, when the order takes effect, and P25 on Jan. 20 next year.

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The new wage hike followed after several proposals for NCR workers had been submitted to Dole—from the P200 proposed increase filed by labor coalition Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP), to petitions calling for double the minimum wages in Metro Manila.

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‘Cost pressures’

The current wages are P695 for workers in the non-agriculture sector and P658 for workers in the agriculture sector and in businesses with only 10 to 15 employees.

The wage hike will benefit more than 1.1 million NCR workers, Dole said in a statement, while Labor Secretary Francis Tolentino—addressing a meeting with market vendors and construction workers in Malabon City on Tuesday—called the wage adjustment “a historic P85 increase.”

“It is the highest daily [increase] in the private sector,” he said.

READ: Labor groups: P85 wage hike must not derail salary increase bill

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But business groups expressed concern over the new hike. In a message to the Inquirer, Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Ferdinand Ferrer called the increase “very challenging [for] businesses at this time.”

Also reached for comment, Management Association of the Philippines president Donald Lim said businesses will comply with the new order, even as he noted that “many MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises) will face additional cost pressures that could affect hiring, expansion, and pricing decisions.”

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READ: Workers hit staggered wage hike: Why? Do we pay groceries in tranches?

“The focus should now be on helping both workers and businesses by improving the ease of doing business, lowering logistics and energy costs, investing in skills and technology, and creating an environment where wage growth is driven by productivity rather than mandated increases alone,” he added.

Legislated wage hike

Labor groups criticized the wage increase and their “historic” significance as Tolentino put it.

“What is truly ‘historic’ about this wage hike is not its magnitude but the shamelessness to call it historic. Not even a hundred pesos was added to the salary of workers after they lost hundreds of pesos worth of their income because of inflation,” TUCP said in a statement, as it again urged public support for its proposed wage hike.

The group cited a recent hearing by the House committee on labor and employment which “Secretary Tolentino did not attend.”

“Instead of joining the hunt for a true solution to low wages, he chose to defend and celebrate the regional wage board system that for decades failed to lift workers out of poverty,” TUCP said.

Luke Espiritu, president of Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino, also noted a resistance to legislated wage adjustments, saying the P85 increase “will be used by employers’ groups to advocate that there should not be a legislated wage hike.”

‘Spare change’

TUCP and another group, the Labor Education and Research Network, also described the wage-increase tranches as “alms” and an “insult to struggling workers.”

“Workers do not need spare change, we need a serious wage hike and a reform of our wage setting mechanisms,” the network said.

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In a statement by his group, Alliance of Concerned Teachers chair Ruby Bernardo said “Any wage increase won by workers is welcome, but let us not mistake crumbs for genuine economic relief.” —WITH REPORTS FROM KENNETH CHRISTIANE BASILIO, ANDREA GREGORIO, AND INQUIRER RESEARCH