Bigtime fuel price hikes dissipates value of wage hikes

The wage increases issued recently by the wage boards across 14 regions in the country failed to uplift workers from below poverty wages said the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP).

And the scheduled bigtime increases in fuel prices today, June 7, will surely trigger prices of basic commodities and cost of services to shoot up and would further diminish the buying power of wages.

TUCP President Raymond Mendoza said the buying power of the current  wage adjustments are being dissipated by the series of previous and present extraordinary increases in prices of basic commodities and cost of services and have no impact in lifting the lives of workers from worsening poverty caused by the pandemic crisis.

The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) said14 regional wage boards have released wage increase orders ranging from 30 pesos to 110 pesos in both agricultural and non-agricultural sector workers. Some regional wage boards mandate the increases in tranches which would take effect within this month and few weeks later.

“Because of extraordinary inflation, the series of wage increase orders issued by the wage boards failed to restore the purchasing power of wages and it  didn’t uplift workers’ purchasing power above poverty threshold wage level,” Mendoza stressed.

The 33 pesos wage increase in Metro Manila, for example, raises the minimum wage from 537 pesos to 570 pesos per day. However, despite being the highest minimum wage rate in the country, the wage hike in the metropolis failed to surpass the 640 pesos daily poverty threshold, Mendoza said.

“This phenomenon directly hit the lives of workers and their families already bearing the brunt of the pandemic in particular the informal workers, the daily paid and the minimum waged workers who are mostly contractual and short-term, end-of-contract employees,” said Mendoza.