MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law a measure seeking to increase salaries of more than 1.4 million government employees starting this year.
The Salary Standardization Law of 2019 raises the minimum basic salary or Salary Grade 1, for government workers from P11,068 to P13,000.
Government employees under Salary Grades 10 to Salary Grades 15 will have the largest increases ranged from 20 to 30 percent while the smallest increase would be 8 percent for government workers under Salary Grades 23 to 33, which includes President Duterte.
SSL V would give public school teachers salaries higher than their private sector counterparts by around 65 to 87 percent.
Aside from salary increases, the measure also mandates the grant of midyear bonus to government workers equivalent to one month salary as of May 15 of a given year, provided that they have rendered at least four months of service and are still in service by the same day.
The existing yearend bonus equivalent to one month basic salary and cash gift of P5,000 must also be released in November of every year.
A total of P34.2 billion has been allocated under the 2020 national budget for the implementation of the first tranche of the pay hikes.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said that Duterte’s signing of the law is pursuant to his desire to upgrade the standard of living of government employees.
“The law is aimed at benefitting those hardworking men and women in the government, including our teachers and nurses who unfortunately have been neglected in the past,” Panelo said.
President Duterte earlier certified the bill urgent allowing the Senate and House of Representatives to skip the three-day rule and approve the measure on third and final reading./PN
