Senate to push legislated wage hike after NCR hike

PHILIPPINE Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” F. Zubiri on Monday said he would continue pushing a legislated wage hike, saying the P40 increase approved by a wage board for Metro Manila last week is not enough.

“We thank the wage boards for the increase, but definitely that’s not enough,” he told the ABS-CBN News Channel. He added that P40 would not buy you a kilo of rice.

Mr. Zubiri said he wants to talk to President Ferdinand R. Marcos, Jr.  about his bill seeking a P150 across-the-board wage hike that the labor committee has approved.

The Senate could lower it to P100 as a compromise, he said. “We could amend it and come up with the committee report, propose a P100 minimum wage increase — an additional minimum wage increase — for our workers,” he added.

The Senate chief also said foreign companies were being dissuaded from giving more than the minimum wage because of the possibility of losing incentives given to economic zone locators.

“They were advised not to do that because it would look like you can afford it and therefore, you will not get the incentives,” he said in Filipino, citing a prospective foreign investor at Clark ecozone in Pampanga province. He declined to elaborate. — Jan Jiminel Cacdac