8 Breadwinners Needed To Support a Family of 6 In ARMM
House leaders agree: legislated wage hike needed now

Every month, a family of six in Muslim Mindanao needs P22,440 ($399.36) to fulfill their needs but a minimum wage earner can only earn a gross monthly income of P3,080 or $54.81. This only means eight minimum wage earners are needed to meet the needs of every poor family! Meanwhile, some House leaders sense the urgency of legislating for a minimum daily wage increase.

BY DANILO ARAÑA ARAO
Bulatlat

For the 16.1-million wage and salary workers as of April 2004, the urgency is clear and the injustice must be corrected.

It is important for Congress to intervene in the unacceptable situation of low wages amid high cost of living, particularly in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) where eight minimum wage earners are needed to provide for the needs of a family of six.

Last September 15, members of the House Committee on Labor and Employment were convinced that the two bills that seek to provide a P125 ($2.22) across-the-board, nationwide wage increase for private sector workers – House Bill No. 1063 and House Bill No. 345 – should be passed immediately. They decided to rush the House committee report that consolidates the two wage bills, in the process paving the way for the measure’s approval on second reading.

Both bills are titled “The P125 Daily Across-the-Board Wage Increase Act.” House Bill No. 1063 was filed by Representatives Crispin Beltran (Anakpawis), Rafael Mariano (Anakpawis), Satur Ocampo (Bayan Muna), Teodoro Casiño (Bayan Muna), Joel Virador (Bayan Muna) and Liza Maza (Gabriela Women’s Party). On the other hand, House Bill No. 345 was filed by Rep. Roseller Barinaga (2nd District, Zamboanga del Norte) who is chairperson of the House Committee on Labor and Employment.

Indeed, a legislated wage hike is long overdue. Militant workers and their allies have been calling for a P125 ($2.22) across-the-board nationwide increase in the minimum daily wage in the private sector since August 20, 1999.

Five years ago, the minimum daily wage was P193.67 ($3.45) on the national average. In Metro Manila at that time, a minimum wage earner got P223.50 ($3.98) per day. The daily cost of living for a family of six then amounted to P383.30 ($6.82) on the national average and P455.74 ($8.11) in Metro Manila based on estimates of the IBON Foundation, an independent research think-tank. In 1999, the data clearly showed that wages were not enough to meet an average family’s basic needs.

Getting worse

Based on relevant data from 1999 to 2004, the situation has gotten worse. As purchasing power substantially decreased in the past five years, the peso lost 44 percent to 45 percent of its value.

For the first eight months of 2004, the purchasing power of the peso (PPP) in Metro Manila was P0.55 ($0.01). This means that a Metro Manila-based individual needs P100 ($1.78) to buy goods and services that cost only P55 ($0.98) in 1994 (i.e., the base year used in deriving the consumer price index which is the basis for computing the PPP).

It is important to relate wages to increased prices of goods and services through the years to assess the buying power of one’s take-home pay. In the case of Metro Manila, the increase in real terms of the minimum daily wage was only P11.16 ($0.20) from 1999 to 2004. In areas outside Metro Manila, the minimum daily wages actually decreased by P1.30 ($0.02) in real terms. (See Table)

This explains why workers, despite the nominal increases in their minimum wages in selected regions from 1999 to 2004 – in Metro Manila, for example, the minimum daily wage in nominal terms increased by P76.50 ($1.36) – are still having a hard time making ends meet. The reason is simple: the minimum wage increases were not substantial enough to cope with rising cost of living requirements.

At present, minimum wage earners in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) may be considered the worst lot, given that the minimum daily wage rate has been pegged at P140 ($2.49) since 1998, making it the lowest in the entire country.

Highest family wage requirement

Ironically, the ARMM has the highest family living wage requirement based on data from the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) as of February 2004. A family of six in the ARMM, according to NWPC, needed P748 ($13.31) daily to meet food and non-food requirements.

On a monthly basis, an ARMM-based family of six needs P22,440 ($399.36) to fulfill their needs but a minimum wage earner can only earn a gross monthly income of P3,080 or $54.81 (assuming that he or she works for 22 days in one month). Clearly, there is a need to correct a situation in this region where eight minimum wage earners are needed to meet the needs of a family of six!

While a Metro Manila-based worker has the highest minimum daily wage of P300 ($5.34), the daily family living wage requirement in this area was pegged by the NWPC at P594 ($10.57). This means that a family of six in Metro Manila should have a monthly income of P17,820 ($317.14) but the minimum wage earner can only get P6,600 ($117.46) monthly.

The P125 ($2.22) across-the-board, nationwide legislated wage increase is clearly not enough to make minimum wage earners reach the desired family living wage but it can help provide relief to their seemingly impossible task of providing for the needs of their families.

It is indeed absolutely necessary to intervene, and the plight of workers at present gives Congress the necessary justification.

While the House committee’s approval of the wage bill is a positive development, the bill’s enactment into law is still in question. Militant labor groups say mass actions should be sustained to ensure that HB Nos. 1063 and 345 will not end up like the P125 ($2.22) wage bill in the 12th Congress (i.e., HB No. 4188) where it merely got archived, having been approved by the same House committee but not taken up by the House for plenary discussion. Bulatlat

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