The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) assails the NCR wage increase as just a few crumbs tossed from their master’s table of overflowing abundance and a humiliation to the struggling Filipino workers, as the labor group vows to push for the passage of House Bill No. 7871, also known as the Wage Recovery Act, which seeks to give a daily across-the-board ₱150.00 wage hike for all workers in the private sector.
“The NCR regional wage board proved once again to be so myopic. They opted to protect business profits rather than the bigger societal purpose of the wage increase. As TUCP has repeatedly pointed out the need to elevate the daily wage above the poverty threshold to afford a family of five at least one nutritious meal a day is inextricably linked to addressing the growing problem of stunting Filipino children due to persistent poverty and inequality. According to UNICEF Philippines, every day, 95 children in the Philippines die from malnutrition, and twenty-seven out of 1,000 Filipino children do not get past their fifth birthday. A third of Filipino children are stunted or short for their age. Stunting after two years of age can be permanent, irreversible, and even fatal,” stated TUCP Vice President Luis Corral.
House Bill No. 7871, also known as the Wage Recovery Act, is pending in the House Committee on Labor and Employment, while the Philippine Senate has already passed a ₱100.00 wage increase. However, the initiative for a legislated wage increase was torpedoed by DOLE during the Labor Day ceremony towards the regional wage boards, prompting several workers’ groups to call for the resignation of DOLE Secretary Bienvenido E. Laguesma.
“Despite working hard for an honest living, workers are condemned to a life of deprivation and poverty, which means the promised middle-income Philippines by 2025 excludes the workers and a fatal error. According to the World Bank’s “Philippines Human Capital Review,” if the country does not invest in human capital, the incoming labor force members will be unable to drive innovation and economic growth. The World Bank said the Philippines has a window of only 20 to 25 years to invest in human capital development, which for the TUCP should start with having a decent daily wage to afford nutritious meals for workers’ children and pay for their education and health. The P35.00 increase in the daily minimum wage could barely raise the needed amount for the family’s daily expenses,” underscored Corral.
“The workers are humiliated by the ₱35.00 increase! It is a slap on the face of every worker, even the resource persons, who underscored the imperative of raising workers’ wages against the big lie that any increase is ‘catastrophic.’ The TUCP and the Filipino workers turn to Congress as we have had enough of DOLE’s diversionary schemes. Filipino working families have had enough of being fiddled around in the past 35 years. Worst, the regional wage boards only belatedly and inadequately adjust wages for the four million minimum wage earners, leaving behind the tens of millions of workers who are mostly unorganized with no collective bargaining agreement (CBA) to raise their paychecks and benefits or even bargain for wage distortion,” lamented Corral.
In 1989, Republic Act No. 6727, or the Wage Rationalization Act, created the regional wage boards. The real value of minimum wages across the region stagnated and failed to keep up with inflation, as the IBON Foundation disclosed that the purchasing power of minimum wage earners today is much lower than nearly a decade ago.
In 2024, the highest daily minimum wage in the country is ₱610.00 in the National Capital Region (NCR). However, the Ateneo Policy Center estimates the daily cost of the government-prescribed daily healthy food guide called ‘Pinggang Pinoy’ by the DOST Food and Nutrition Research Institute (DOST-FNRI) for a family of five is ₱693.30 per day. Worse, in 2008, the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), chaired by no less than the Labor Secretary, estimated the daily family living wage at ₱917.00.
“As DOLE and the regional wage boards continue to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the issue that is no longer whether there will be an increase but on how much and how soon, after more than three decades of stagnant starvation wages, we trust that the representatives of the people in Congress will heed the Filipino workers’ plea and take over the task of raising workers’ wages by immediately passing the long-overdue and much-deserved ₱150.00 legislated wage hike, to be certified urgent by the President, ISABATAS TAMANG SAHOD SA BAGONG PILIPINAS!NO TO POVERTY WAGE!,” emphasized Corral.
