Workers’ group backs P75 wage hike in Metro

MANILA, Philippines—A labor group Wednesday called on the Metro Manila Regional Wages and Tripartite Productivity Board (RWTPB) to “break tradition and expectations” by granting a P75-minimum wage hike for all workers in the region.

The Partido ng Manggagawa released its own study that reveals that the cost of living for a family of six in Metro Manila as of April this year has already reached P1,000 a day.

The RWTPB is set to release a wage increase order this week. The PM, however, said no less than a P75 wage increase is justified to bridge the “huge” gap between the minimum wage and the family living wage.

PM’s survey shows that the gap between the P382 minimum wage in the National Capital Region and the present cost of living is P618 or 162-percent of the ordinary wage.

“Even if both parents work—which is the buy one, take one policy of the government—then their combined income will not be enough to feed the entire family,” PM chair Renato Magtubo said in a statement.

PM’s actual computation only shows P984 but Magtubo said the study did not provide for savings and social security which in the government’s basket of goods and services constitute 10 percent of the cost of living.

The PM’s study did not include items such as leisure and recreation, and the family budget for health, excluding medical expenses.

“If we include such items, and we must in a more accurate survey, then the cost of living will easily breach P1,000 per day,” Magtubo said.

The former lawmaker added that the National Wages and Productivity Council’s (NWPC) cost of living estimate of P917 in September 2008 has to be updated in the light of this study and in the face of continuing inflation.

“We wonder if the NWPC stopped releasing cost of living estimates because it unwittingly exposes the cheap labor policy of the government. PM thus concludes that even if the P75 wage petition is granted by the NCR wage board, such will not be enough to bridge the huge gap between the minimum wage and the cost of living,” he said.

The group, through its congressional allies, has been advocating in the past few years for the passage of a bill creating a “National Wage Commission” to replace the regional wage boards.

The NWPC defines the living wage as the amount of family income needed to provide for the family’s food and nonfood expenditures with sufficient allowance for savings and investments for social security.

According to the NWPC, the wage should enable the family to live and maintain a decent standard of human existence beyond mere subsistence level, taking into account all of the family’s physiological, social and other needs.