A MILITANT lawmaker yesterday urged the House of Representatives to approve its own version of a bill seeking to increase the salary of minimum wage workers in the private sector.
Rep. Arlene Brosas (PL, Gabriela) issued the call a day after the Senate approved on final reading its bill granting a P100 wage increase.
Brosas said the House has to prioritize bills on increasing wages, including her House Bill No. 4898 which seeks to institute a national minimum wage based on the family living wage, and HB No. 7568 which seeks a P750 across-the-board wage increase for private sector workers.
“The House of Representatives must do its part and immediately hear the wage hike bills filed by the Makabayan bloc and other lawmakers. The people have long been clamoring for a wage increase so the government has to respond,” she said in mixed Filipino and English.
Brosas, a member of the militant Makabayan bloc at the House, said the two measures can be merged for a P1,100 uniform national minimum wage increase.
The Senate Bill No. 2534, seen to benefit some 4.2 million minimum wage earners, was passed amid opposition from business groups that said a P100 salary hike is not the solution to challenges faced by Filipino workers.
The measure bill, if enacted, could be the first national legislated wage hike for the private sector since 1989 when Republic Act No. 6727 or the Wage Rationalization Act, which effectively declared that wages would be set on a regional basis by regional wage boards, became a law.
Brosas said the Senate’s approval of the SB No. 2534 is “a step towards acknowledging that the current minimum wage is not enough.”
“Although the P100 increase in wages is not enough to reach the P1,193 family living wage, this as an initial step towards putting the spotlight on the plight of the workers who have long been calling for a significant wage hike,” she also said.
Brosas said big business owners continue to profit huge amounts, citing the 2021 Forbes’ Philippines Rich List, which showed that the collective wealth of the 50 richest Filipinos grew 30 percent to $79 billion or around P3.9 trillion despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
The labor coalition NAGKAISA! echoed Brosas as it asked the House to pass a wage hike bill.
“It is within their power to legislate a more substantial increase that benefits both private and public sector workers, reflecting the real economic pressures faced by Filipino families,” it said.
Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma expressed hope the proposed legislated wage hike will not result in a further skyrocketing of prices of basic commodities and services.
Laguesma said wage hikes are likely to result in bigger expenditure for businesses, which may reflect on the prices of their products and services.
“We may feel an increase in basic commodities and in transport. There is usually a chain reaction,” he said.
“We must closely monitor and, hopefully, it won’t lead to a huge increase in prices, especially among the small businesses,” he added. — With Gerard Naval
