THE new minimum wage in Region 1 is now P400 per day for establishments with 10 or more workers and P372 per day for establishments with 1 to 9 workers following the implementation effective March 1, 2023 of the third and last tranche of the wage increase as provided for in Wage Order No. RB1-21.

This was stressed by Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) Region 1 Director Exequiel Guzman during a zoom press conference that the effectivity of the last tranche of  the P90 wage increase approved by the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board on March 21, 2022, giving the minimum wage earners an additional take home pay of P30 per day was March 1.

Guzman, chair of the wage board for Ilocos region, clarified that the increase of workers’ daily minimum pay will result in corresponding adjustment of their 13th month pay, which is the total amount of compensation he or she receives, divided by the number of days and months he or she reported for work.

The first tranche of the P90 wage increase was effected June 6, 2022 when workers were given a raise of P30 per day, hiking the minimum wage at that time to P340 per day for workers in establishments with from 10 to 29 workers; and P312 per day for workers in establishments from 1 to nine workers.

The second tranche of another P30 was effected from December 1, 2022 when establishments with 10 to 9 workers were given a raise of P370 per day and workers in establishments of from 1 to nine workers,P342 per day.

The minimum wage, he said, seeks to provide the workers a wage that is enough and sufficient to make both ends meet based on studies that were deliberated upon by the wage board, adding that any amount that will be added to the minimum wage will depend on the negotiation between the worker and his or her employer.

He said under Republic Act 6727, the wage board adjusts the minimum wage just once a year, except if there is supervening condition, which may happen if there is unreasonable increases in the prices of goods and services which may lead towards a run-away inflation that can result in lesser power of the peso, adversely affecting the daily wage earners workers.

The setting of a minimum wage is also based on the needs and capacity of employers considering the fact that the region and the country is yet under the COVID-19 recovery mood, and the grant of the same need not result in workers’ displacement, Guzman added. (Leonardo Micua)

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