TUCP: Living wage is P12,517/month

​Php154 wage hike petition to wage board

THE TRADE Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) on Sunday justified its demand for a P154 increase in daily minimum wage in Metro Manila, saying the current wage of P481 was not enough to lift workers out of poverty.

TUCP Nagkaisa spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said that considering inflation and its impact on the purchasing power, the real value of the daily minimum wage was actually only P315.56, way below  the government's P417-a-day estimated poverty threshold for a family to cope with the cost of living.

Tanjusay said that on a monthly basis, the real wage value was P9,467 a month, way below the P12,517 monthly income needed to meet the basic food needs of a family of five based on the Food and Nutrition Research Institute (FNRI).

The requirements include nonfood needs such as clothing, housing, transportation, health and education to ensure that one remains economically and socially productive.

He cited Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) estimates in March that the number of workers whose wage value fell below the poverty threshold reached 7.879 million.

The TUCP said it would also file minimum wage increase petitions for workers in Region 4A as well as the provinces of Cebu, Davao and Cagayan de Oro.

Red alert warning

"We are raising a red alert warning to employers and the government to immediately address the disparity between the minimum standard required for a family to survive and the current real value of the highest minimum wage," said Tanjusay.

"The wage boards must convene immediately to bring quality relief to workers unable to cope with the rising cost of living due to their inadequate salaries," he added.

He said a minimum wage lower than the poverty threshold affected production due to insufficient nutrition and stress.

"If this low quality of life is not acted upon, there will be more perpetrators and victims of all sorts of crime, more Filipinos would opt to work abroad, and it would breed a host of social problems," said Tanjusay.

The TUCP filed its petition to bring the daily minimum wage up to P635  with the Metro Manila wage board on Thursday.

He said a P154 wage increase would merely restore the P481 to its real value.

Last year, the TUCP filed a P136 wage increase petition for minimum wage earners in Metro Manila but the DOLE-NCR approved only  P15.

The one-year prescriptive period of the last wage increase expired on April 4, thus the need to seek a new wage increase to make the salary of Metro Manila workers more realistic, he said. - - By: Estrella Torres @inquirerdotnet Philippine Daily Inquirer

P154 Wage hike sought for Metro Manila

THE COUNTRY'S biggest labor group plans to formally seek today a P154 increase in daily minimum wage for private sector workers in the National Capital Region (NCR), or Metro Manila, arguing in a statement yesterday that current levels have been left far behind by rising cost of living.

"With (the) current wage level falling 24% behind rising cost of living," the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP)-Nagkaisa faction said it would file the petition at 10 a.m. at the office of the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board-NCR in Malate, Manila.

The most recent wage order in the capital which took effect in April last year -- the law provides that the minimum wage can be raised only after a year from the last adjustment -- provided a P15 increase that took the daily minimum wage to P481 for non-agriculture workers and to P444 for those in farms, private hospitals with up to 100 beds, retail/service businesses with up to 15 workers and manufacturing establishments with less than 10 workers. TUCP-Nagkaisa had asked for a P136 raise in January last year.

Metro Manila's wage hike usually triggers similar action in the country's other regions.

"[The] current minimum wage in the NCR is P481. But because of rising cost of services and increasing prices of basic goods, its purchasing power is P364 only," TUCP-Nagkaisa spokesman Alan A. Tanjusay said in a text message yesterday.

Vicente R. Leogardo, Jr., director-general of the Employer's Confederation of the Philippines and one of two management representatives in the Metro Manila's wage board, said in a separate text that "[t]he board within 15 days from filing of petition shall conduct [a] public hearing..."

"Any party may file opposition on or before the initial hearing. Within 30 days after conclusion of [the] last hearing, the boards shall decide on the merits of the petition," he added, declining to comment on the petition itself that will be filed today.

But the Finance department's chief economist pointed out a possible flaw in TUCP-Nagkaisa's computation of the proposed wage hike.

"That is their contention," Finance Undersecretary Gil S. Beltran said in a telephone interview, when sought for comment.

"But they will have to argue based on statistics. Ang inflation rate ba nasa 24%? I don't think so."

The Finance official noted that consumer prices in Metro Manila generally increased by 1% last year. This was more than three times slower than the 3.2% recorded in 2014.

A family of five needed about P348 daily to meet basic food and non-food needs in the region, according to the Family Income and Expenditure Survey conducted by the Philippine Statistics Authority for the first semester of 2015.

"I don't think it (24%) is the appropriate inflation rate to use in computing the adjustment in wages. That's the inflation rate during the Marcos period," Mr. Beltran said, dismissing the possibility of this happening given the benign inflation outlook for the Philippines.  - By Alden M. Monzon, Reporter and Keith Richard D. Mariano /  BusinessWorld

TUCP: Underground economy workers living below poverty line reaches 27.1 million

​Informal food vendors pitch their improvised stalls and receive inadequate assistance from the government. Photographed by Tricia Aquino, InterAksyon.com.


MANILA - The number of Filipino workers in the informal economy and who cannot afford the cost of living standard of P19.50 per meal a day have reached 27.1 million since January this year, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines-Nagkaisa (TUCP-Nagkaisa) disclosed Monday, citing statistics from the Labor Force Survey of the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) released in March this year 

According to that PSA survey, there are 27.1 million workers working in the informal sector economy out of the 67.153 million total work force beginning this year.

Informal sector workers include jeepney and tricycle drivers, wet and dry goods vendors, bus and truck drivers and conductors, truck assistants, salesladies, barbers, beauticians and port workers.

In October 2015, there were 26.853 million workers in the informal economy, PSA data further showed.

Some 40 million of the 67.153 million work force are employed, while 2.466 million are unemployed and 7.879 million are described as underemployed.

TUCP-Nagkaisa spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said the informal economy or so-called "underground economy" sector are comprised in great part by individuals who operate businesses that are very small in scale and not registered with any national of formal government agency.

Workers in the informal economy typically sell their goods or services in exchange for subsistence wages or other forms of compensation.

The National Economic Development Authority (NEDA) and the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) estimated that a family of five needs P8,778 a month which is equivalent to P292.60 a day or P19.50 per person for three meals a day in 2012.

The two agencies also indicated that workers in the informal sector economy earn an average income of just P5,750 a month or P221.15 a day.

Based on this correspondence of data, Tanjusay said, workers need to earn a minimum of P3,028 a month more, or P100.93 more a day, in order to survive.

He observed that informal sector workers are the working people most vulnerable to risks, and often engage in variety of schemes just to cope.

"Despite their significant contribution to the growing economy, government intervention for them to survive, or to cope, is very small. They have no choice, but try to cope on their own and meet both ends day by day, not by weeks or by months.

"Most of them borrow money from loan operators despite exorbitant 6 to 10 percent interest rates. Some bet in daily, small-time illegal gambling. Some are engaged in supplemental sideline work," Tanjusay said. - InterAksyon.com

Poor workers’ ranks swelling

The number of poor Filipino workers who are working in the informal economy and cannot afford the cost of living standard of P19.50 per meal a day has reached 27.1 million since January this year, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines-Nagkaisa (TUCP-Nagkaisa) said on Monday.

TUCP-Nagkaisa spokesperson Alan Tanjusay said the informal economy or "underground economy" sector  refers to poor individuals who operate business that are very small in scale and not registered with any national government agency.

"Workers in the informal economy sell their services in exchange for subsistence wages or other forms of compensation," he said.

The National Economic Development Authority  and the Philippine Statistics Authority said a family of five needs P8,778 a month which is equivalent to P292.60 a day or P19.50 per person for three meals a day in 2012.

The two agencies   said workers in the informal sector economy, for the same year, earn  an average income of P5,750 a month or P221.15 a day.  Both agencies are expected to release government poverty standard in July this year.

Using this equation, Tanjusay said poor workers need a minimum of P3,028 more a month or P100.93 more a day in order to survive. He said informal sector workers are working people most vulnerable to risks and engage in variety of schemes for them to cope.

"Despite of their significant contribution to the growing economy, government intervention for them to survive or to cope is very small. They have no choice but they rather on their own try to cope and meet both ends by the day not by weeks or by months. Most of them borrow money from loan operators despite exorbitant 6 to 10-percent interest rates. Some bet in daily, small-time illegal gambling. Some are engaged in sideline," Tanjusay said.

Informal sector workers includes jeepney and tricycle drivers, wet and dry vendors, bus and truck drivers and conductors, truck assistants, salesladies, barbers, beauticians and port workers.

According to PSA's Labor Force Survey released in March this year, there are 27.1 million workers  in the informal sector economy out of the 67.153 million total work force beginning this year.

Forty million of which are employed while 2.466 million are unemployed and 7.879 million are underemployed. In October 2015, there were 26.853 million workers in the informal economy, PSA data showed - Vito Barcelo / The Standard