Minimum wage earners in Metro Manila will now earn an additional P21 after the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR) approved the wage increase on Thursday, September 14.
Labor groups Associated Labor Unions (ALU) and Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) released a statement about the approval of the wage hike.
“The wage board announced a P21 daily wage increase on top of the existing P491 daily minimum wage for more than six million minimum-waged workers in 17 cities and municipalities in Metro Manila,” the statement read.
This brings the minimum wage to P512, effective October.
But ALU-TUCP spokesman Alan Tanjusay insists the increase is not enough to meet the everyday needs of the workers and their families.
“The P21 increase in daily wage remains insufficient for families to cope with rising prices of goods and increasing costs of goods. P21 is only 4.27% of the current P491. So it obviously did not lift workers out of poverty. Workers who helped built a high economic growth of 6.9% average Gross Domestic Product do not deserve this very small amount,” The Manila Times quoted Tanjusay as saying.
ALU and TUCP previously pushed for a P184 and P259 across-the-board wage hike increase.
Source: The Manila Times
Related Articles:
https://filipinotimes.net/news/2017/09/11/employees-leave-high-paying-jobs-reasons/
