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Friday, March 29, 2024

Board sets daily wage earners’ minimum

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BAGUIO CITY—Only daily wage earners receiving the minimum wage in the Cordillera Administrative Region will be covered by adjustments to be made by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board, the agency said Monday after consulting with various sectors.

RTWPB-CAR Board Secretary Augusto Aquillo said the answer to the numerous queries on why the adjustment is only applicable to minimum wage earners is that it is defined under the provisions of Republic Act 6727, or the Wage Rationalization Act of 1989, together with the Guidelines on Wage Fixing. 

The law only allows regional wage boards to adjusting the level of minimum wage rates prevailing in the region, and nothing more, Aquillo added.

Once adjusted or increased, the lowest wage rates shall become the minimum that employers are to pay their workers, he said, adding that no workers shall be paid lower that the adjusted minimum rates.

However, Aquillo emphasized that employers are not barred from giving employees wages above the prevailing minimum, because what is prohibited by RA 6727 is paying workers a salary lower than the minimum rates. 

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“The wage rates set are the lowest amounts payable to workers. It does not mean that they are the exact amounts the employers are to pay their workers,” he said.

Employers are free to give their workers higher wages, especially if the business can afford to pay the workers because of their skills, qualifications and length of service, “thus they ought to receive a higher pay,” Aquillo said. 

He explained that the Supreme Court already ruled that a wage order issued by the RTWPB shall apply and cover minimum wage earners only, and not those employees receiving more than the prevailing minimum wages.

Earlier, RTWPB-CAR passed Resolution No. 3, series of 2016, for a motu proprio wage review and conduct of public consultations and hearings for possible minimum wage adjustments in the Cordillera Administrative Region.

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