Various labor groups called on the government to grant the P100 wage increase they filed last year, saying the current minimum wage increase can no longer sustain the living conditions of workers.
The labor groups, led by Partido ng Manggagawa filed a petition for a P100 raise in minimum wages on December 6, 2022, but deliberations only started this month.
“Like Mayon Volcano, workers are restive over the high prices and low wages. The NCR wage board should grant the demand for a wage hike if it wants to calm the seething social volcano,” according to Judy Miranda, secretary general of Partido Manggagawa (PM).
“As of January 2023, workers have lost P88 in the value of the P570 minimum wage due to inflation. Thus, P100 is necessary to recover the purchasing power of workers’ wages,” the labor groups said.
The labor groups claimed that the NCR wage board and the Department of Labor and Employment has dragged its feet on the wage hike demand for half a year already.
“Workers are suffering from starvation wages. Instead of a living wage, workers are paid a ‘libing’ wage,” Miranda insisted.
Similar petitions for a P100 salary increase have been filed in Region 4-A, Region 6, and Region 7. There are also pending bills for a P150 legislated across-the-board wage hike in both houses of Congress.
The labor groups also belied the claims of employers that a wage hike will lead to higher inflation and more unemployment.
“These are just horror stories peddled by employers without basis in science. Studies have shown that wage hikes do not result in any significant inflation or unemployment effects. Moreover, wage increases for workers in the formal sector also lead to higher pay for our kababayans in the informal economy, a phenomenon called the lighthouse effect. This disproves the allegation of employers that a wage hike will only benefit 10% of workers and disadvantage the other 90%. We ask that employers moderate their greed so that everybody benefits from a salary increase,” Miranda explained.
The group clarified that the wage hike demand is merely wage recovery. “We are not yet even talking of workers claiming a just share in the fruits of their labor. From 2001 to 2016, real wages stagnated but labor productivity increased by 50% and the GDP doubled,” Miranda maintained.