P1,200 minimum wage bill filed anew, scraps regional boards
MANILA, Philippines — House minority lawmakers have revived their push to establish a national wage board and enforce a standardized living wage of P1,200 for private sector workers. This comes after the 19th Congress failed to even pass a legislated P200 increase in minimum wages across the country.
The Makabayan bloc, composed of Rep. Antonio Tinio (ACT Teachers Party-list) and Rep. Renee Co (Kabataan Party-list), filed House Bill 2599 on Wednesday, July 30, in a renewed bid to pass the proposed National Minimum Wage Act.
The measure's primary goal is to amend the Labor Code to abolish regional wage boards and establish a National Wages and Productivity Board to take their place. At the same time, it seeks to automatically set the minimum wage to P1,200, regardless of region.
The proposed rate reflects IBON Foundation’s estimate of a living wage sufficient for a five-member family to afford a decent standard of living.
The bill revises standards for national minimum wage fixing to specify that the wage rate must be enough to raise a family and to "maintain its decent existence."
"It shall be of such amount which is sufficient for a worker to provide their family the basic and necessary expenditures that take into consideration all of their family's physiological, social and other needs, so as to enable them to live and maintain a decent standard of living beyond mere subsistence, with adequate allowance for social security," the bill states.
Penalties. The measure also suggested a penalty of P25,000 to P100,000 for employers who refuse or fail to pay the national minimum wage to their workers.
On top of the fine, the bill seeks to compel employers to pay employees the total amount of unpaid wages owed to them, multiplied by the number of working days the wage increment was unpaid. Moral damages of P50,000 each must also be paid to each employee and double the unpaid benefits.
Employers may also face imprisonment for three to five years, while their business permit may be suspended.
Wages lag behind now-high prices
In the bill's explanatory note, both lawmakers heavily criticized the creation of regional wage boards in the country to "rationalize" wages, which they noted were established during former President Cory Aquino's term in 1989.
"Wage rationalization created an irrational system — an anti-worker, detached from evolving economic realities, unjust and has sabotaged rather than encouraged the establishment of decent minimum wages across the country," it read.
Under the regionalized system, minimum wages vary across regions and industries, even if workers put in the same effort for the same work. The idea comes from the assumption that the cost of living also differs in provincial areas.
The regional wage boards were then established to conduct regular consultations and studies to adjust minimum wage rates accordingly. This explains why Metro Manila has the highest minimum wage at P695 for non-agricultural workers and other provinces have minimum wages much lower than that.
Tinio and Co flagged the wide gap in regional minimum wages as a major concern, citing IBON Foundation’s analysis showing that regions with higher family living wage estimates often earn less than Metro Manila.
What's worse, they stressed, is how regional wage boards are "slow to react" to market shifts since 1989. Labor groups have long argued that the prices of basic goods are nearly uniform nationwide, questioning the relevance of cost-of-living differences in wage setting.
"To date, there is no longer any significant variation of rice prices between the regions and Metro Manila," the bill's explanatory note read.
Since 1989, workers have seen their daily wages rise by an average of P381, a 428% increase from the P89 minimum wage back then. This is equivalent to five times more than what workers used to earn, the lawmakers found.
But they also pointed out how this still falls short when compared to the rising cost of basic goods. Rice now costs around seven times more than the P7 per kilo price in 1989, and galunggong is about 10 times more expensive than it was decades ago.
"Obviously, while the regional minimum wage rates increased by hesitant small steps as their formation has been obstructed by RTWPBs, the prices of basic goods and services increased by wild leaps and bounds across the country, unchecked by any government intervention," the explanatory note read.
Other House minority lawmakers have also filed bills seeking to follow the principle of "equal pay for equal work" and phase out regional wage boards. Meanwhile, some lawmakers have refiled the P200 minimum wage hike bill that died in the 19th Congress.
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