RP minimum wage higher than rest of Asia


The Department of Labor and Employment defended Monday additional wage increases for minimum income earners in several regions of the country, which placed Filipino workers among the highest paid in Asia.

Labor Secretary Patricia Sto. Tomas said the almost yearly wage increases are necessary due to the country's high inflation rate.

"Our wages are higher than China, Vietnam, Indonesia and Thailand while we are equal to Malaysia. Singapore and Brunei also have a higher minimum wage. But for the most part, we are higher than the rest of Asia," she told radio DZMM.

She said the minimum wage in Vietnam is only 78 cents while China is at US$1.56. The Philippines has a P300 (US$5.50) daily minimum wage rate in Metro Manila and P220 (US$4) in Central Visayas.

She added that while most of the garments industry have moved to lower wage markets such as China, Filipino workers can still boast of the high quality of their work compared to their regional neighbors

"For example, high-end garments that need a lot of embroidery are still with us. However, expensive children's clothes that are basic have already been moved out of the country," she said.

The Employers Confederation of the Philippines earlier pointed out that China has $50 billion in foreign investments mostly in the garments industry, compared to $1 billion in the Philippines.

ECOP president Rene Soriano said the proposed wage hikes would continuously burden small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the country.

He said the almost yearly wage increases have depleted SMEs in the country from 826,000 in 1999 to 700,000 in 2003 with almost 1.5 million laborers losing their jobs, according to figures provided by the National Statistics Office and National Wages and Productivity Commission.

"What happened is that the informal sector, the underground economy rose from 18 million employees in 1999 to 20 million in 2003. That is the trend now, less employers and enterprises in the formal sector and more employees in the informal sector (due to the wage increases)," he said in a separate DZMM interview.

Santo Tomas, however, countered that SMEs that could not implement the wage increases could petition for a wage exemption for one year.

Six regional wage boards, including Metro Manila, Ilocos, Cagayan Valley, Western Visayas, Western Mindanao, and CARAGA, are expected to order Monday an increase in the minimum daily wage of workers in different parts of the country.

The Central Luzon and Cordillera boards last Friday already approved the grant of a P20 cost of living allowance (COLA) for workers in their regions, instead of raising their minimum daily wage.

On the same day the Central Visayas Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board approved a P15 increase in the daily wage of private sector workers in Metro Cebu, and a P12 adjustment for workers in the rest of the region.

The wage adjustment raised the daily minimum wage to P223 in Metro Cebu, and P220 for the rest of Central Visayas. The minimum wage increase is still at P300 for Metro Manila.

Unlike an increase in minimum wage that benefits workers directly, the COLA is not included in the computation of pay for overtime, bonuses and retirement or separation.

Wage boards also allowed exemptions to the minimum wage for distressed businesses, new businesses outside export processing zones and garments exporters.

The Central Visayas Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board decided to give P12 and P15 wage increases for workers in the region after management and government representatives to the board rejected the P22 adjustment sought by labor representatives.

The wage board had also rejected the wage increase petitions filed by the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines and the Alliance of Progressive Labor that sought a pay hike of P78 and P112, respectively.

The Leyte Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Filipino-Chinese Chamber of Commerce of Tacloban City proposed only a P10 increase in the daily emergency cost of living allowance, citing poor business conditions and the huge drop in sales of late.

The Eastern Visayas wage board received the business groups’ position paper during public consultations last Friday. No labor group in the region had filed a petition for wage increase.

In Central Visayas, the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry had also strongly opposed any wage adjustment, proposing an increase in non-wage benefits and incentives instead. These included housing, transport, medical care, education, and insurance. The group also supported calls to increase income tax exemptions for workers.

The National Economic and Development Authority also opposes any increase in tax exemptions for salaried workers.

that's sad, cuz it's such a big population with so little jobs.

Government jobs are probably taking most of these...

This is true!

The Philippines has one of the highest minimum wage in Asia but also one of the highest inflation rate....

baka naman per hour yan.
kumpara mo naman sa pinas P300 nga per day, which is equivalent to 8 hours.
so meaning, minimum wage earner is paid 67 cents a day.

having a higher wage is nothing if the prices of goods are also high. china to be exact have cheaper foods than that of the philippines.

you gotta understand China still have vestiges of socialism showing profound government subsidies on farmers, which consists 80% percent of their population.

i do agree that goods are cheaper, but you have to see through the context of the government and economy type.

we're more of a "services" economy meaning we deal into delivering services like health, tourism, industrial, etc. if we have a high minimum wage, our employers have to compensate by increasing the price of goods.

we can't compare ourselves to china coz they have a higher population who are unemployed (note: not the ratio to unemployed vs. total population). so if i was a chinese in china, no matter how much they pay me for as long as i get payed, i won't complain, hence the cheap-salary jobs which are attracting foreign investment.

all imo..

China's currency is pegged 8.28 to the dollar