(We yield this space to the joint statement of the Alliance of Concerned Teachers, Alliance of Health Workers, Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees, and Kilusang Mayo Uno due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
WE, WORKING Filipinos who depend on wages and salaries for our families’ sustenance call on the Duterte administration to decisively effect substantial pay hike for all workers in the public and private sector, regularly-employed and under contracts alike. Such is the only meaningful way to commemorate International Labor Day on May 1 — honor men and women from whose labor our economy rests upon by addressing their dire economic situation.
Workers’ wages have been systematically depressed for decades through wage regionalization. The highest regional minimum wage today only amounts to P537 in the National Capital Region while lowest at a paltry P256 in Region I. The government, the single biggest employer of Filipino workforce, is the top violator of minimum wage standards as it pays Salary Grade 1 employees a minimum of P11,068 monthly or P503 per day. The government has one-sidedly doubled the basic pay of uniformed personnel to about P30,000 monthly while entry-level teachers and nurses in the public sector receive less than P21,000. The move only served to distort further the already skewed salary scheme in government, leaving majority of civilian employees struggling with less than decent salary levels while top officials bask on scandalous pay levels, like the President who gets more than P400,000 per month.
The National Economic Development Authority’s claim of lower poverty incidence pegged on unrealistic P70 daily per capita cost of living is a grave insult to hard-working Filipinos. It exposes how the government finds it acceptable for workers to live on inhumane standards.
The current minimum wage could only afford 53 percent of family’s daily cost of living. The poorest families are the worst hit by the spikes in inflation that heavily eroded family incomes by P3,300 to P7,300 in 2018, according to Ibon Foundation. Minimum wage earners gained nothing from the much-touted income tax exemption while tax savings of professionals were quickly nullified by high prices.
Midway through his term, the Duterte government holds a back-to-back disgraceful record — a nine-year high inflation rate, a pitiful P25 wage hike for private workers, and zero self-initiated salary increase for public servants.
As hardworking Filipinos who struggle to support our families through honorable means, we deserve no less than wages that would afford us humane living conditions. We say enough of the government’s neglect. We demand for the immediate increase of minimum wage nationwide to P750 per day in the private sector and P16,000 monthly for public sector employees. We call for the upgrading of the pay of professionals, starting with a P30,000 entry-level salary for teachers and nurses in the public sector. True to the essence of the International Labor Day, we unite to assert our most basic right to decent pay.
