New Metro Manila P481 minimum pay far from P1,088 family living wage – IBON Foundation

Published March 19, 2015 9:47pm

A Filipino household with six members in Metro Manila depending on just one minimum wage earner to survive would be unable to live decently, according to the IBON Foundation, a think tank.

"Ang ginagamit din kasi na pamantayan ng pamahalaan para masabing hindi ka mahirap ay hindi sa antas ng disente, tingin nga natin subsistence level 'yun or busabos," Ibon Foundation executive director Rosario Guzman said in a GMA 24 Oras report on Thursday.

According to the IBON Foundation, at least P1,088 per month is the living wage these days. does not include expenses for education and hospital emergencies.

To reach or slightly exceed that P1,088 living wage level, the household would need three minimum wage earners, not just one. With three minimum wage earners, a family would have P1,443 per day.

If the wage earner works five days a week, the compensation total for four weeks or about one month of work would be P9,620. Three minimum wage earners in a household would have that family earning P28,860 per month.

According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the average monthly estimate of the poverty threshold for a family of five was at P8,778 back in the first semester of 2014. The per capita threshold also back then was P10,534,

Commenting on the wage hike announcement, Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said: "Ang nais natin maging outlook ay yung mag-develop tayo ng mas marami pang job opportunities that are highly remunerative, yung nagsho-showcase sa talents and skills ng mga Pilipino,"

On Wednesday, the Department of Labor and Employment announced that the minimum wage in the National Capital Region (NCR) has been raised to P481 for workers in the non-agriculture sector and to P444 for workers in the agriculture sector.

Malacañang said the computation of the P15 increase underwent the correct procedure.

In the Philippines, minimum wage rates are not legislated but are set by wage and productivity boards.

Despite this established wage-setting mechanism, the Bayan Muna partylist intends to file a bill seeking to increase the salaries of workers in NCR to P16,000 per month.

"The bill will be filed in this Congress for a minimum wage of P16,000, yan ang dapat ipasa, kukubinsihin namin ang Congress na ipasa when we return in May," Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Neri Colmenares said.

At the P16,000 level, that would compute to around P800 per day for five days of work in one week or P319 more than the new P481 minimum wage rate in NCR for non-agricultural workers.

P481/day not enough

Josie Gannapao, a street sweeper in Quezon City and mother of four kids, said P481 per day is not enough for a family's needs.

"Sa isang tao lang po siguro yung P481, kasi kung pamilya talaga, wala ho, hindi [aabutin]. Pwede pag pa-tuyo-tuyo na lang ang ulam, noodles, 'yun kakasya siguro," she said.

Her family spends P490 a day, which includes P300 for food, P150 for transportation, P20 for electricity, and P20 for water.

Daily expenses for her kid's allowance in school P100, body soap and groceries P10, and liquefied petroleum gas P10 are not yet included.

Gannapao does not have Social Security System coverage and medical benefits.

"Kung ano sana yung binibigay sa opisina ng gobyerno, sana ibigay lalo doon sa mahihirap na trabahador sa kalsada," she said.

Minimum wage effects

The Philippine government's minimum wage policy "reduces employment", an Ateneo de Manila University-based economist said in a study published in the Philippine Institute for Development Studies (PIDS) Policy Notes in August 2014.

Small firms are more adversely affected by the policy than large firms because of the operations scale of the small firms are not enough to enable them to absorb the impact, while the larger firms have the scale, the study found.

ADMU Professor Leonardo Lanzona Jr. said the minimum wage policy has the effect of making "it difficult for small firms to mature into larger-scale firms."

"Controlling for demographic factors, younger and less educated workers were those laid off with the increase in minimum wages," Lanzona said.

He added that "female workers showed a lower probability of getting employed with higher minimum wages."

Lanzona's analysis also led him to conclude that "because of the minimum wages, firms are reluctant to hire younger, less educated (workers), and female production workers." — Kathryn Mae Tubadeza/Earl Victor Rosero, GMA News

Tags: minimumwage, livingwage, unemployment, jobless, laborforce