ILOILO City – Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto’s proposed 14th month pay for private sector workers equivalent to one month salary would be difficult for employers, according to the Iloilo Business Club (IBC).
It was only on July 12 when the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board started enforcing a new wage increase, said IBC executive director Lea Lara.
Sotto’s Senate Bill No. 2 seeks a legislated 14th month pay for private sector workers on top of the 13th month pay required by law.
“The 13th month pay is gobbled up by Christmas expenses. We need extra earnings in the middle of the year to help in school and medical expenses,” according to Sotto, a comedian turned politician.
Lara said employers may be amenable to it if the amount is not necessarily equal to a full month salary.
“It might be half of a month’s salary or some amount lang, parang extra bonus,” she said.
Not all employers have the capacity to give 14th month pay equivalent to one month salary, according to Lara.
She also clarified that some well-off companies were already giving their workforce 14th month pay at the end of the year.
Under Senate Bill No. 2, employees – regardless of their employment status, designation, and irrespective of the method by which their wages are paid provided that they have worked at least one month during the calendar year – are entitled to a 14th month pay every year.
The 14th month pay should be given not later than Dec. 24, moving the time of payment for 13th month pay to not later than June 14.
Sotto, however, clarified that companies may be exempted from the proposed law if they could prove, through their declaration of income at the Bureau of Internal Revenue, that they are not able to provide the 14th month pay.
Just this July 12, Wage Order No. 24 increasing the minimum wage of workers in agricultural, non-agricultural, industrial, and commercial sectors in Western Visayas took effect.
The following are the new minimum wage rates:
* P365 in non-agriculture / industrial / commercial sector employing more than 10 workers; the previous rate was P323.50
* P295 in non-agriculture / industrial / commercial sector employing 10 workers or below; the previous rate was P271.50
* P295 in agricultural plantations; the previous rate was P281.50
* P295 in agricultural non-plantation; the previous rate was P271.50./PN
