Concepcion eyes staggered implementation of P100 wage hike

JOSE Maria “Joey” Concepcion 3rd, Private Sector Advisory Council head for jobs and Go Negosyo founder, on Wednesday suggested a staggered implementation of the proposed P100 wage hike, saying that not all businesses can afford to increase the salaries of their employees.

During the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon briefing, Concepcion said that the increase should be implemented on a staggered basis.

“Not everybody can afford a P100 wage increase. Maybe larger corporations can, those who are doing well, but there are many that are still not doing well. Our micro-entrepreneurs, I guess, they will be exempted from that wage increase but what about the medium-size ‘negosyantes’ (entrepreneurs)? They will be affected,” he said.

“As wages increase, of course consumption spending will increase as well. That will help the economy. But what we should do is not to implement P100 wage at one go; let us spread that over a period of time,” he added.

“I’m not against wage increase; I think we want to uplift the lives of our people. They cannot live — Yes, bulk of our people are at the poverty level and our goal, especially in Go Negosyo, is to really help them move up in life,” he said.

“Do we implement a P100 wage increase at one go, or do we plan that overtime so it will not affect our businessmen who are just rising up,” Concepcion added.

On Monday, February 19, senators unanimously approved Senate Bill 2534, which seeks to grant all minimum wage earners in the private sector a P100 increase.

The last legislated wage hike in the Philippines was in 1989.

Meanwhile, Concepcion said that the focus should be on reskilling and upskilling workers, as well as creating more jobs.

“The more skills you have, the more you can move up to the ladder and be promoted to higher positions, which will give you higher pay,” he said. “So, we really have to reskill/upskill our employees so they can have a better pay down the road. And that is our goal, to try to find a way how to upskill/ reskill our employees so that they can all receive a better wage.”