ON the heels of the issuance of a new wage order by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR), labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) yesterday reminded employers not to forget their employees affected by wage distortion.
In a phone interview, PM Chairman Rene Magtubo said employers should also resolve wage distortions that usually arise following a wage order issuance.
“Workers receiving wages above the prescribed minimum wage are also affected by the rising cost of living, as such may be entitled to an adjustment in their wages,” said Magtubo.
Wage distortion occurs when there is the elimination or severe contraction of intentional quantitative differences in wage or salary rates between and among employee groups in an establishment.
It normally occurs when there is a mandated wage increase, especially involving minimum wage earners.
Last week, the NCR wage board approved a P40 increase for minimum wage earners in Metro Manila.
This brings the daily minimum wage in the region to P610 (for the non-agriculture sector) and to P573 (for the agriculture sector, service and retail establishments employing 15 or fewer workers, and manufacturing establishments regularly employing fewer than 10 workers).
According to DOLE, about 1.5 million full-time wage and salary workers earning above the minimum wage may indirectly benefit from the wage order.
This, DOLE said, will be the result of upward adjustments in the enterprise level arising from the correction of wage distortion cases.
Magtubo said one solution is by having employers adopt a specific wage distortion formula as recommended by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE).
“A wage distortion formula by the DOLE may be useful to compute the increase for those workers receiving wages above the prescribed minimum wage,” he said.
Another method that may be used, he said, is by having employers adopt the same amount of pay adjustment for minimum wage earners.
“We appeal to the employers to implement the P40 minimum wage increase to all its employees so as not to alter or distort the existing pay structure of their establishment,” said Magtubo.
On the other hand, PM urged DOLE-NCR to be open to inquiries and complaints on wage distortions.
“(They should) entertain and resolve swiftly any complaints from workers regarding wage distortion on their pay structure as a result of the new wage order,” said Magtubo.
