‘Wage hikes never a match to bigtime fuel hikes’, labor fumes

BAGUIO CITY (June 6, 2022)—- Recent wage hikes issued by the wage boards across 14 regions in the country does not match the fuel hikes, thus failing to uplift workers from below poverty wages, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) said.

The scheduled bigtime increases in fuel prices Tuesday, the labor group said. “will surely trigger prices of basic commodities and cost of services to shoot up and would further diminish the buying power of wages.”

TUCP President Raymond Mendoza said, the buying power of the current wage adjustments “are being dissipated by the series of previous and present extraordinary increases in prices of basic commodities and cost of services and have no impact in lifting the lives of workers from worsening poverty caused by the pandemic crisis.”

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said 14 regional wage boards have released wage increase orders ranging from 30 pesos to 110 pesos in both agricultural and non-agricultural sector workers.

Some regional wage boards have placed the increases in tranches which would still take effect within this month and few weeks later.

“Because of extraordinary inflation, the series of wage increase orders issued by the wage boards failed to restore the purchasing power of wages and it  didn’t uplift workers’ purchasing power above poverty threshold wage level,” Mendoza stressed.

The 33 pesos wage increase in Metro Manila, Mendoza cited, raises the minimum wage from 537 pesos to 570 pesos per day.

“However, despite being the highest minimum wage rate in the country, the wage hike in the metropolis failed to surpass the 640 pesos daily poverty threshold.”

The TUCP leader stressed, “this phenomenon directly hit the lives of workers and their families already bearing the brunt of the pandemic in particular the informal workers, the daily paid and the minimum waged workers who are mostly contractual and short-term, end-of-contract employees.”

Artemio A. Dumlao