Wages in 7 regions below poverty threshold

MANILA, Philippines - The salaries of workers in at least seven regions in the country are lower than the poverty threshold, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) reported yesterday.

Citing data from the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), Labor Secretary Rosalinda Baldoz said these are in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, CARAGA, Eastern Visayas, Bicol, MIMAROPA, CALABARZON and Ilocos.

Baldoz said the NWPC is exerting all efforts to adjust the minimum wage in all the regions.

She said NWPC executive director Criselda Sy has promised to make the minimum wage at par, if not higher than the poverty threshold, by the end of 2015.

Baldoz said this means that all the 17 regions would be compliant with the two-tiered wage system that the DOLE initiated in 2010.

Under the system, the first tier is a fixed, mandatory minimum wage that serves as social safety net while the second a flexible, productivity-based wage increase and incentive.