DOLE: NCR wage board may decide on wage hike pleas by July

The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in the National Capital Region (NCR) may decide on pending wage hike petitions by July, the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said on Thursday.

DOLE spokesperson and Assistant Secretary Lennard Serrano said the wage board in Metro Manila received 16 wage hike petitions as of Wednesday, April 29.

These petitions include those seeking a daily minimum wage of P1,200, as well as other wage hike petitions pushing for a P500 increases in the daily minimum wage.

“Ang sinasabi natin walang impossible. Hinahayaan natin sa wage board kung ano ang kanilang determination,” said Serrano a day before the observance of Labor Day on May 1.

(We’re saying, it is not impossible to grant the wage hike. But we will let the wage board do its determination.)

The DOLE explained that wage boards determine and issue wage increases. They also start reviewing their wage orders 60 days before the anniversary of their last issuances.

The Metro Manila RTWPB last issued a wage order granting a P50 increase in the daily minimum wage in June 2025.

“It is for the regional boards to decide, but more or less may decision na. Tingnan natin baka may panibagong wage order na rin dito, kasi that is already beyond the 12 months,” Serrano said.

(It is for the regional boards to decide, but more or less they will have a decision by July. Let’s see. They may also issue a fresh wage order by then because that is already beyond 12 months.)

Progressive groups, including the Business Process Outsourcing Industry Employees Network (BIEN) Philippines, have been calling for a P1,200 daily minimum wage amid the fuel crisis and increasing prices of commodities.

The P50 daily minimum wage hike approved by the NCR RTWPB in June last year brought the daily minimum wage rate in Metro Manila from P645 to P695 for the non-agriculture sector; and from P608 to P658 for the agriculture sector, service and retail establishments employing 15 or less workers, and manufacturing establishments regularly employing less than ten workers. — JMA, GMA News