Zubiri to big businesses: Don’t oppose legislated wage increase

MANILA, Philippines — Big businesses should not oppose moves in Congress to legislate an increase in the daily minimum wage as such would not make a dent in their profitability but rather boost workers’ productivity, Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri said yesterday.

Zubiri said he was at a wedding, and business leaders who were there approached him and inquired about his pending bill seeking to increase the daily minimum wage by P150.

“Look, I know you’re all rich, and billionaires. Don’t you want to share even just a little to your workers by giving additional wages?” Zubiri told dzBB radio in Filipino.

He, however, did not identify the business leaders he spoke to.

He cited an example of a company where each of its 1,000 employees receives an additional P150 on their minimum wage. The wage hike would only cost the hypothetical company P3.3 million per month or only P39 million a year, he said.

Employers oppose a legislated wage increase, pointing to an existing tripartite mechanism at the local level that allows consultations among workers, employers and the government to determine the appropriate daily wage in a particular area that can be enforced and will not lead to business shutdowns.

“Our workers need a one-time, big-time assistance,” Zubiri claimed.

He added some industries were asking something in return for the additional cost but he pointed out that Congress a few years ago already reduced the corporate income tax from 30 percent to 25 percent.

He described the proposed wage hike as a drop in the bucket of profits of large companies.

He said he made a comparison of daily minimum wages in Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore as some groups have warned that high workers’ pay could turn off investors.

He said Indonesia raised its minimum wage, in peso terms, by almost P800 per day; P870 for Malaysia and 1,400 Singapore dollars for workers in the city state.

Vietnam has a daily wage of P500 but the pay has very few deductions.

The last legislated wage hike was in 1989 at P15, which could be enough to buy an ice drop, Zubiri said, adding there is strong support for his P150/day increase bill in the Senate.