CAR workers get P8 hike in daily wage

MANILA, Philippines - Workers in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) are finally getting a much-desired pay hike.

The National Wages Productivity Commission (NWPC) reported that starting last Monday, minimum wage earners in CAR got an additional P8 in their daily basic pay.

The latest pay hike brought the current minimum wage to P280 per day in Baguio City and the municipalities of La Trinidad, Tuba, Itogon and Sablan in Benguet. In other areas in the region, the floor wage level is P263 a day.

Henry John Jalbuena, chairman of the CAR Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board, said the wage board decided to grant the salary hike motu propio or without any petition from labor unions in the region.

Jalbuena said the wage board adopted a two-tiered wage system that seeks to correct the exclusion of millions of workers from the protection of minimum wage setting.

NWPC executive director Ciriaco Lagunzad III said this new wage system sets a floor wage, while addressing several unintended outcomes such as inflation, unemployment and informality.

“In particular, the new wage system consists of a fixed floor wage or entry level for new entrants and low-skilled workers and a flexible wage above the floor based on productivity and performance of industry,” he said.

Under the new system, Lagunzad said employers who value the contributions of their workers may voluntarily give them productivity and incentive-based pay, considering such factors like business performance, labor productivity, work behavior, and business competitiveness.

Wage boards in the National Capital Region, Cagayan Valley, Calabarzon, Bicol, Western Visayas, and Central Mindanao have also granted pay hikes for workers in their respective jurisdictions.