By Billy Begas
Members of the Makabayan bloc in the House of Representatives have jointly filed a measure mandating P750 across-the-board wage hike for employees in the private sector.
In House Bill 7568, the lawmakers cited the high inflation rate and the dwindling value of salaries in justifying the proposed increase.
According to IBON Foundation, the authors said the P570 daily minimum wage in Metro Manila, the highest in the country, is only 49.1% of the P1,161 family living wage in the region as of January 2023.
Meanwhile, the daily minimum wage in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao is P341, which is the lowest in the country and only 17.5% of the region’s P1,944 living family wage.
The living wage, as defined by the National Wages and Productivity Commission, is the amount of family income needed to provide for the family’s food and non-food expenditures with sufficient allowance for savings/investments for social security.
The measure prohibits companies from laying off their employees or resorting to downsizing on the mere basis of complying with the payment of the mandated wage increase arising from the proposal.
Micro, small, and medium enterprises, and small landowners owning not more than five hectares of agricultural land and relying on agricultural workers, who may not be able to afford the P750 daily wage increase may apply for wage subsidy from the government.
The funds needed for the wage subsidy will be included in the annual budget of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
Any person or company that refuses or fails to pay their workers the mandated across-the-board wage increase shall be meted with a fine amounting to 100% of the total amount of the wage increment due to employees and/or imprisonment of three to five years. Any person convicted shall not be entitled to the benefits provided by the Probation law.
This is aside from the indemnification for each employee worth P50,000 plus double the amount of unpaid benefits.
