MANILA -  The Department of Labor and Employment will not block the proposed legislated wage hike currently pending at the House Committee on Labor and Employment, according to Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma.

The DOLE chief issued the statement after two lawmakers slammed as “outdated” the basis used by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards in approving wage increases. Laguesma previously expressed concerns over a legislated wage hike, saying it may not be sustainable, particularly for small and medium-sized businesses.

During the House hearing on the proposed 2025 budget for DOLE, National Wages and Productivity Commission Executive Director Maria Criselda Sy said that in approving the P35 increase in the daily minimum wage of private workers in the National Capital Region, the board used the 2021 data on poverty threshold. Sy said that this was because the data for the whole year of 2023 was not yet available at that time.

Sy however noted that the current daily minimum wage for workers in the non-agricultural sector in Metro Manila set at P645 is still “way above” the 2023 poverty threshold for NCR, which was at P517.

This was criticized by ACT Teachers Party List Representative France Castro.  

“Sahod alipin o sahod busabos ang sweldo ng ating mga manggagawa. Bakit? Dahil ang batayan ng ating gobyerno sa pag-determine ng sahod ng ating mga mangaggawa ay based sa mga outdated na data,” Castro said.

(Our workers are given a slave's wage or poverty wage. Why? Because the government uses outdated data to determine wages.)

Gabriela Party List Representative Arlene Brosas meanwhile said that what they want is for workers to have a "living wage" which is guaranteed by the Constitution.

Laguesma meanwhile countered that the Constitution also respects the rights of business owners "for a period of investment, expansion and growth." 

"Kaya bina-balanse ng DOLE ‘yung aspirasyon din sa living wage at tinitingnan namin din batay sa nakatadhanang batas na kapasidad ng employers,” Laguesma added.

(DOLE balances the aspirations to a living wage while also looking at the capacity of employers to pay.)

“Kami ay hindi humaharang o hahadlang sa mga gawain ng ating Kongreso, partikular ang House of Representatives. Ang aming mandato, tungkulin, magbigay ng inputs na pwede nyong i-consider, pwede ring hindi n’yo bigyan ng pagsasaalang-alang,” the DOLE chief said.

(We do not block or hinder Congress, particularly the House of Representatives. Our mandate is to give you inputs that you may consider or weigh.)

Last February, the Senate approved on third and final reading a bill proposing a P100 increase in the daily minimum wage of workers in the private sector. But at the House of Representatives, proposals for an across-the-board P150-P750 daily wage increase remain pending at the committee level.

Castro, meanwhile, called for a review of the criteria used by the wage boards.

NON-COMPLIANCE

Over 1,500 of the 23,000 establishments inspected by the Department of Labor and Employment this year do not comply with minimum wages, according to data from the agency.

Last year, of the 29,000 establishments inspected, 2,000 were non-compliant. And in 2022, the number of non-compliant establishments was over 4,000 from the 81,000 inspected.

Meanwhile, DOLE said that more than 655,000 contractual workers in the Philippines have been regularized since 2016.

However, the agency also clarified that some of these workers may have been affected by the closure of some establishments during the COVID-19 pandemic period.