Senate to push P150 wage hike

THE PHILIPPINE Senate would push a legislated wage hike of P150 across all workers, Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” F. Zubiri said at the weekend.

“The Senate will make a stand on this issue,” he told DWIZ radio. “Many or our businessmen will get mad, but they need to share their blessing to our workers,” he added in Filipino.

Increasing wages was the No. 2 concern of Filipinos after inflation, according to a poll by Pulse Asia Research, Inc. in June.

A whopping 97% of Filipinos also favored the proposal to increase the daily minimum wage of private sector workers by P150, Mr. Zubiri said.

He said he would use the poll to convince his fellow lawmakers to approve the increase.

“We can make it graduated,” he said. “For example, in the National Capital Region, we can add P100. In Luzon, Visayas at Mindanao, let’s make it P150 so that everyone is on equal footing. Or let’s make it P110 for Metro Manila and P150 for the rest.” — Jan Jiminel Cacdac