ON the heels of the increase in the minimum wage rate for domestic workers by the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW), Migrante International yesterday denounced the continued non-compliance of foreign employers with the required floor salary of household service work-ers (HSWs).
In a statement, Migrante International said setting a higher minimum wage rate would be irrel-evant if the foreign employers continued disregarding it.
“Until now, there have been increasing cases where employers do not follow or recognize the provisions of the contract of our domestic helpers,” said Migrante.
“There are several cases of payment of lower wages or several months of delayed payment,” it added.
Proof of this, the overseas Filipino workers (OFW) group said, is the cases of runaway OFWs that opted to seek repatriation.
“Several thousands (of OFWs) simply return home without being paid their full salary. These forms of wage theft are widespread in many countries,” said Migrante.
Worse, the group stressed, is that the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) has been doing nothing to address the problem.
“This problem has been going on for a long time. But despite this, the DMW has done nothing to uphold the rights of our domestic helpers,” said Migrante.
In its Advisory No. 25-2025, the DMW said the minimum monthly wage of domestic workers is being increased from US$400 to US$500.
The $400 minimum wage for HSWs was set under the 2006 HSW Policy Reform Package of the then Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).
