House looking at wage hike of as much as P400
THE HOUSE of Representatives is seeking to pass an across-theboard wage increase for workers in the private sector that is higher than the Senate’s P100 proposal, according to a lawmaker.
Congressmen are studying a proposed P350 to P400 wage hike, House Deputy Majority Leader and Iloilo Rep. Janette L. Garin told a news briefing on Thursday, citing instructions from Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez.
“The intention is good, but P100 may be too low,” she said, referring to the wage hike bill passed by the Senate on second reading on Wednesday.
“With the high cost of goods, it may not be enough. It’s better if it was higher, similar to what Congress is carefully studying now,” she added in Filipino.
Last year, congressmen filed separate measures seeking a P750 and P150 across-theboard wage increases for private sector workers. These have yet to be heard by the Labor Committee.
Nagkaisa, the country’s largest labor coalition, urged the House to pass its own version of the legislated wage hike.
“The Senate’s P100 wage hike proposal falls short of the P150 originally promised and a far cry from what was needed to save minimum wage earners from the poverty wages imposed upon them by all the regional wage boards,” it said in a statement. “The measure is also for minimum wage earners only.”
The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECoP) said raising wages would make it costlier for foreigners seeking to invest in the Philippines.
“We are now the second-most expensive in the region in terms of minimum wage,” ECoP President Sergio R. Ortiz-Luis, Jr. said by telephone. “It might be small, but it surpassed all the original wages to the point that we became one of the most expensive in the region.”
He said microenterprises that closed during the coronavirus pandemic might choose not to reopen if Congress approves the wage increase.
“Let’s rely on the wage boards,” Mr. Ortiz-Luis said. “It’s the most objective way to do it — not politicized and emotional.”
Ms. Garin said the wage increase should be balanced by the capacity of companies to pay since some might be forced to lay off workers or even shut down.
About 99.58% of Philippine businesses are micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME), according to a 2021 study by the Trade department.
Marikina City Rep. Stella Luz A. Quimbo on Monday urged her peers to focus on growth and productivity, noting that a legislative wage increase could fan inflation.
‘BALANCING ACT’
“Companies will pass on their wage increase to prices… A costp-ush inflation will happen,” the lawmaker, who co-heads the Committee on Appropriations, told a news briefing. “You will temporarily satisfy our workers who are also consumers.”
Economists said Congress should weigh the effects of a legislated wage increase on small businesses and inflation.
“It really is a balancing act in terms of timing,” Robert Dan J. Roces, chief economist at Security Bank Corp., said in a Viber message, even as he noted that it could boost worker productivity.