BAGUIO, 2 CORDILLERA AREAS GET P350 WAGE HIKE

BAGUIO CITY—THE dai lym inimum wage in Baguio and Tabuk cities and La T rinidad town in Benguet province has been raise dto P350 beginning o nn ov. 18, according to a wage orde ri ssued by t hec ordillera Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivit yb oard (RTWPB).

Workers in Ifugao, Kalinga, Apayao , Ab r a,m ountai np rovince an dot he rto wns in Benguet will get a P340 minimum wage that the RTWPB base do n t hep revaili ng p overty threshold.

The threshol di s t he m inimum income required by a family or person to buy basi cf ood and clothes and spen do nh ousing, transportation, healt h and education, according to t he Philippi nes tatistics Authority.

The Cordille ra poverty threshold f or t he f irst half of 2018 was P12,352 per capita, which mean tt hat an individual needed am inimum monthly average income of P2,059. A family o ff ive required am inimum monthly income of P10,293 “to bec onsidered not poor.”

The new wage increase does not benefit personal drivers, domesti cw orker san d employees o fm icroenterprises who are covered by other wage laws.

Private schools that have not increase dt he irt uitio nf or school year 2019-2020 may defer compliance with the wage rates until the beginning of next school term, t he b oard said.

Exequiel Guzman, Cordillera director of the Departmen to f Labor an de mployment , sa id t he boa rd d ecide d to simplify the wage order for easie ri mplementation.