MANILA, Philippines — Minimum wage earners in Calabarzon and Central Visayas will receive a higher take-home pay after the regional wage boards granted their requests for a salary increase, according to the Department of Labor and Employment.
The DOLE yesterday said the National Wages and Productivity Commission affirmed the new wage orders issued by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards (RTWPB) in Calabarzon and Central Visayas.
For workers in Calabarzon, the RTWPB granted an increase ranging from P21 to P75 per day, which will be given in two tranches effective Sept. 30 this year and April 2025.
Minimum wage earners in Central Visayas will receive an increase ranging from P33 to P43 per day effective Oct. 2.
‘Measly pay hikes’
Labor group Partido ng Lakas ng Masa (PLM) expressed dismay over what it described as “measly pay hikes” granted to workers in Calabarzon and Central Visayas.
Leody de Guzman of the PLM said the regional wage boards gave workers barya or loose coins.
“They treated the workers like beggars. They gave alms in tranches amid the increasing prices of basic commodities,” De Guzman said, adding that the RTWPBs should be abolished.
The DOLE said the Calabarzon wage board “re-categorized” the grouping of areas based on the income classification of local government units.
The board also simplified the wage structure into agriculture and non-agriculture sectors as well as retail establishments employing not more than 10 workers.
Upon full implementation of all tranches, the daily minimum wage rate will increase to P450 and P560 in the non-agriculture sector, P425 and P500 in the agriculture sector and P425 in retail and service establishments employing not more than 10 workers.
The RTWPB in Central Visayas maintained its area-based classification of classes A, B and C, with each class now having a single wage rate for both the agriculture and non-agriculture sectors.
The pay hike brings the daily minimum wage from P458 and P468 to P501 for Class A; P425 and P430 to P463 for B, and P415 and P420 to P453 for Class C.
The labor department said the new wage orders for workers in private establishments would translate to an increase of about seven to eight percent from the current minimum rates.
The orders are expected to directly benefit up to 1.2 million minimum wage earners in both regions.
The DOLE said up to 2.7 million workers earning above the minimum rate may indirectly benefit from the orders as a result of the wage distortion.