Workers petition P100 wage hike

Various workers’ groups on Tuesday, December 5 filed a formal petition for a P100-per-day wage increase for workers nationwide.

According to the labor groups, workers are in dire need of a pay increase to help them recover the value of their wages that has been lost due to inflation and among others.

Minimum wage earners in the National Capital Region (NCR) are getting a daily pay of P570, which labor groups described as way below the wage of P1, 133 with a family of five members.

They said workers should be earning at least a minimum of P33, 000 a month to live decently.

Labor groups have also launched different forms of protest to pressure the government to heed their demand for a pay hike.

The business community, however, opposed the demand of workers for wage increase, saying the government should instead focus on creating additional employment. The employers claimed that a wage increase would only benefit a small percentage of the country’s labor force.

Meanwhile workers in the Bicol region will get the second tranche of the approved wage adjustment. The first tranche was given last June 2022 worth P35. Now, as part of the two-tranche wage increase, workers will get another P20 under the Wage Order (WO) No. RBC-20.

The daily minimum wage in the region now stands at P365.00 per day. The said adjustment took effect last December 1, 2022.