DoLE: consultations of NCR wage hike set

ROUGHLY 1.1 million minimum wage earners in Metro Manila are expected to get another round of increase this year in their current P610 daily pay.

This pay hike prospect emerged after the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) announced on Wednesday the May 23 and June 4 schedule for public consultations for the labor and business sectors regarding the next round of wage increases in the National Capital Region (NCR).

After the consultations, a public hearing will follow, initially set for June 20.

«Thereafter, the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) in NCR will decide on the propriety of adjusting the minimum wage for the region,» according to the Labor Department.

With this, the NCR-RTWPB can be the first wage board to do the consultations in compliance with the President's Labor Day address directed at a timely review of the regional minimum wage rates «within 60 days prior to the anniversary of their latest wage order.»

On June 26, 2023, the NCR wage board issued Wage Order NCR-24, which increased the daily minimum wage for non-agriculture and agriculture sector workers by P40, which brought the daily minimum wage to P610 for non-agriculture sector workers and P573 for those in the agriculture sector, service and retail establishments employing 15 or fewer workers, as well as manufacturers regularly hiring less than 10 workers.

The present minimum wage in the NCR or Metro Manila took effect on July 16, 2023.

Labor Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma said the other 15 regional wage boards across the country have also been directed to firm up their schedule of consultations and hearings, consistent with the President's directive and with the implementing rules and regulations issued by the National Wage and Productivity Council (NWPC).

Prior to the President's order, all 16 RTWPBs had already issued wage orders to increase the minimum wage from P30 to P89 per day.

The last round of minimum wage increases took effect between July last year in the NCR and February this year in Region 11, or the Davao Region.

Within the 12-month period from the effectivity of the wage order, no petition for wage increase may be entertained, except when