President Rodrigo Duterte has signed into law a measure that will increase wages of government workers in a bid to encourage them to work “doubly hard.”
More than 1.4-million civil servants, including public school teachers and nurses, are expected to benefit from Republic Act No. 11466 signed by the President Wednesday.
The salary adjustment will be carried out in four tranches from 2020 to 2023.
The law also grants salary increase to those in the legislative and judicial branches of government, as well as those in local government units, for the purpose of “creating an atmosphere which would further promote excellence in the service,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said Thursday.
“The Palace hopes that this latest round of salary adjustment will motivate everyone in the public sector to work doubly hard and put more dedicated and competent service in their respective jobs,” Panelo said.
A performance-based incentive scheme would also be implemented to reward exemplary employees and organizations that perform well, according to the law.
“The compensation of all civilian personnel shall generally be competitive with those in the private sector doing comparable work in order to attract, retain, and motivate a corps of competitive and
dedicated public servants,” the law reads.
About P34 billion was allocated in the P4.1-trillion 2020 national budget for the scheduled salary increases this year.
The minimum basic salary of a government employee with Salary Grade 1 would now be raised from P11,551 to P12,224 under the first tranche of pay hike.
The government will earmark a total of P130.45 billion for the implementation of the law.
The President sped the approval of the measure when he certified it as urgent, allowing swift passage of the bill on second and third reading before the Congress adjourned sessions for the holidays.
Senator Juan Edgardo Angara, who defended the Salary Standardization Law-5 (SSL-5) during plenary debates at the Senate, said the biggest increases would apply to employees with salary grades 11 to 13 or the professional level, who will see a 24.1 percent jump in their compensation in 2020 and to 30.7 percent in 2023.
The sub-professional levels or employees with salary grades 1 to 10, will see increases of 17.5 percent in 2019 to 20.5 percent in 2023.
Angara said the law was a fulfillment of the President’s promise to increase the salaries of public servants.
Under SSL-5, the lowest salary grade level employee, who is receiving P11,068 a month, will enjoy an increase in his compensation to P11,551 in 2020, to P12,034 in 2021, to P12,517 in 2022, and to P13,000 in 2023.
Salary Grade 11 employees, which includes the entry-level teachers, will receive an increase from P20,754 a month to P22,316 (2020), P23,877 (2021), P25,439 (2022), and P27,000 (2023).
While the teachers will already enjoy pay hikes under SSL-5, Angara said he will continue to push for further increases in their compensation, “in recognition of the very important role they play in development of our children and nation.”