CEBU CITY – The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-Central Visayas has approved an increase of P18 in the daily minimum pay of workers in the region.
The wage adjustment was approved last Tuesday. With this, there will now be a new minimum wage depending on the classification of each town or city in Central Visayas with agricultural and non-agricultural companies.
There are four classes in Central Visayas. These are Classes A, B, C, and D.
Metro Cebu is classified as Class A with a minimum wage of P386 per day. With the increase, private sector workers in Metro Cebu are set to receive P404 a day.
The monthly wage of househelps in Metro Cebu is also set to increase from P3,500 to P5,000.
Jose Tomongha, the labor sector representative of the RTWPB-7, the new rate for companies with less than 10 employees would now be at P396.
Salome Siaton, director of the Department of Labor and Employment-Central Visayas, said several factors were considered in approving the wage increase.
“We considered the purchasing power of peso, the inflation rate, the real wage, the regional contribution of the labor’s productivity, and the regional threshold,” said Siaton.
Tomongha admitted that the wage increase is not enough but it was a “win-win solution” for both the labor and management sector.
“It is really not enough but a higher increase may already be burdensome for the management sector. We also considered the capacity to pay of the employers,” Tomongha said. (Calvin D. Cordova)
