Wage hike must not hurt small businesses, stoke inflation – President Marcos cos
Credit to Author: Helen Flores| Date: Sat, 1 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0800
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang is studying a proposed measure seeking a P200 across-the-board daily wage hike for private sector employees to ensure it will not be inflationary and hurt small businesses, President Marcos said yesterday.
While the administration is backing measures to support ordinary Filipino workers, Marcos said there are legal and economic issues that must be resolved first before certifying the bill as urgent.
Sen. Joel Villanueva, who chairs the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resource development, yesterday expressed hope that Marcos will certify the bill as urgent.
Marcos said the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board is the one that determines the minimum wage rates and issues wage orders for a specific region.
“So we still have to study it further to see how that will work together. Because this is – the tripartite body was (a) creation of Congress also,” Marcos said.
“I think there is a way to increase that (daily wage), but we have to resolve the legal issues, we have to resolve the economic issues. So, it still deserves a great deal of study,” the Chief Executive said.
Marcos said the government has to study the effects of the wage increase on the economy, especially on the micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
“We will try to resolve that because as you know, it’s very clear that prices are going up and there is inflation. We have not yet controlled it completely,” he said.
“That’s why it’s (wage hike) certainly something that we have to think about to assist the ordinary people,” he said.
Marcos said while big corporations can implement wage hikes, owners of small businesses are worried they might lose some of their workers if salaries are raised.
On Thursday, the House committee on labor and employment approved a substitute bill mandating a P200 daily across-the-board wage increase for private sector workers.