The Employers Confederation of the Philippines expressed support to the proposed P500 monthly subsidy for minimum wage earners.
“We have nothing against the proposed subsidy especially if it will be coming from the CCT (conditional cash transfer),” said Ecop acting president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr.
“Anyway it can just be a re-allocation of the subsidy,” Ortiz-Luis added.
The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines earlier proposed the monthly subsidy and conveyed it to President Rodrigo Duterte.
The employers’ group said the proposed wage increase might have taken into consideration the current level of inflation and the effects of rising fuel costs.
“So long as the (wage) hike will not burden employers and small companies, we’re okay with it,” Ecop said.
The Department of Labor is considering the proposal of the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of Philippines to extend the much-needed salary increase of P500 monthly to minimum wage earners.
The labor groups earlier proposed a P800 per day minimum wage nationwide, a suggestion that remains unacceptable to the government and employers’ group
“The pain of inflation triggered by a wage hike will worsen the plight of the rest of the wage and salary workers,” Ortiz-Luis said, adding that merely minimum wage earners benefit from any wage adjustment.
The estimated number of minimum wage earners nationwide stands at 3.2 million, or less than 8 percent of the total Philippine labor force.
The estimated number of minimum wage earners in the National Capital Region stands at 952,485.
The employers’ group said “setting a national minimum wage will greatly impact on enterprises, especially the micro, small, and medium enterprises located in the regions which provide lower minimum wages as compared to the National Capital Region, and will definitely hamper business operations due to the dramatic increase in minimum wage,” Ortiz-Luis said.
The Philippine Statistics Authority said there were 911,768 micro, small and medium enterprises in 2016, broken down as 820,795 (micro), 86,955 (small) and 4,018 (medium).