The Gabriela Women’s Party on Monday filed a bill mandating a P750 across-the-board and nationwide increase in the salary rate of employees and workers in the agricultural and non-agricultural enterprises in the private sector to attain a living wage.
Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas, the nominee of the Gabriela party-list group, said that the workers’ call for a P750-wage increase is justified, as the amount represents the average gap between current minimum wage levels and the family living wage across various regions.
“This yawning average minimum wage-family living wage gap of P750 across regions starkly represents the vast sea of unfulfilled basic necessities of ordinary Filipino families, which thenational government should urgently address through substantial wage increases amid historic inflationary surges,” she said.
According to the BusinessWorld Top 1000 Corporations in the Philippines report, Brosas saidthe aggregate gross revenue of the top companies jumped 17.5 percent in 2021 (or P13.44 trillion), from the P11.44 trillion posted during the height of the pandemic in 2020. This was thefastest gross revenue growth since the 24.4 percent expansion recorded in 2001.
As for micro and small enterprises, the women’s group said a wage subsidy program will be instituted to assist them in complying with the proposed significant wage increase.
“Significant wage increase is long overdue,” Brosas said.
The Gabriela party-list group urged President Marcos Jr. to certify as urgent House Bill 7568 to bring direct and concrete relief to millions of Filipino workers across the country.