Marcos: P200 wage hike may hurt businesses, fuel inflation, needs review
MANILA, Philippines — While the House of Representatives advances a bill proposing a P200 daily wage hike, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. remains on the fence, saying that the issue “still deserves a great deal of study.”
On Friday, January 31, reporters asked Marcos for his thoughts on the proposed legislative wage hike, expressing some confusion since the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) already sets the minimum wages.
“The thing is we have a tripartite board that actually determines the increase in the wage increase. So we still have to study how that will work together because the tripartite body was [a] creation of Congress din,” Marcos said in an ambush interview.
“Sila ang nagbuo niyan. Nagsulat sila ng batas at nagbuo ng ganyang klaseng entity. ‘Yan ang trabaho nila para alamin kung ano ang dapat maging minimum wage,” he added.
(They created that. They wrote the law and established that kind of entity. It’s their job to determine what the minimum wage should be.)
For him, it is unclear how they could “work together,” but later said the government will “try to resolve” the concern on minimum wages given the rising cost of goods and services.
The inflation rate in 2024 reached 3.2%, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority, hitting the upper end of the government's target range of 2-4%. This was largely driven by rapid increases in the cost of housing, water, electricity, gas and fuel.
However, Marcos empathized with business owners, particularly smaller enterprises, who have voiced concerns that their operations may be affected because they would not have enough capital to pay their employees with the increased wage.
“There's not only one side to this question, there are many sides to it. The employers are worried na sinasabi … ‘pag tinaas ‘yung minimum wage, mababawasan ang kanilang empleyado. Ganu’n pa rin yung pera nila,” he said.
(The employers are worried, saying that if the minimum wage is increased, they will have to reduce their employees. Their money will still be the same.)
The Employers Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) shared this sentiment, highlighting potential investment losses and the