CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga -- Minimum wage earners in Central Luzon will receive an additional increase in their daily pay effective August 1 this year.
This, after the National Wage and Productivity Commission (NWPC) affirmed the newest wage order by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board 3 (RTWPB 3) that raises by PHP20 per day the minimum wage in Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales and Aurora.
Under Wage Order No. RB III-21, the new rate will apply to minimum wage earners or workers and employees in the private sector in Central Luzon regardless of position, designation, or status of employment and irrespective of the method by which their wages are paid.
However, those who are not covered in the said wage order are household or domestic helpers and persons employed in the personal service of another, including family drivers and workers of Barangay Micro Business Enterprises with Certificate of Authority, pursuant to Republic Act 9178.
“We are happy to inform our workers all over the region that a new minimum wage is taking effect this August. This means that the additional daily wage increase will enable them to provide more take home pay for their families,” DOLE Regional Director Zenaida Angara-Campita, who chairs the RTWPB-3, said on Tuesday.
Under the new wage order, minimum earners in Central Luzon in the non-agriculture category and establishment with total assets of PHP30 million or more will receive a PHP400 basic pay per day.
On the other hand, employees working in the non-agriculture category and establishments with assets of less than PHP30 million will have a PHP393 basic pay per day.
This new wage hike adjustment applies for minimum wage earners in the provinces of Pampanga, Tarlac, Bulacan, Zambales, Bataan and Nueva Ecija.
For the province of Aurora, the daily minimum wage increase will take effect in two tranches—from PHP329, a PHP10 increase to PHP339 on August 1 and another PHP10 increase to PHP349, six months later.
Under the agriculture category, the new wage hike for plantation and non-plantation workers in Bataan, Bulacan, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales, will be PHP370 and PHP354, respectively.
Workers in the plantation and non-plantation in Aurora, on the other hand, will be PHP334 and PHP322, respectively.
Meanwhile, for the retail or service category, with 16 or more workers – PHP389 and with less than 16 workers – PHP375, for both six provinces; and, PHP284 in Aurora.
Campita said the new wage order is a result of the RTWPB 3’s consultations with labor and management representatives from different industries in most parts of the region.
She said the RTWPB saw the need to help workers in the region to cope up with the rising cost of living brought by the Tax Reform for Acceleration and Inclusion (TRAIN) Law implementation and fuel hikes.
“The Regional Wage Board deemed it best to increase the minimum wage at reasonable and equitable levels in light of the regional poverty threshold level vis-à-vis, average wage, along with the need to promote performance-based incentive schemes under the two-tier wage system,” she said.
In issuing the wage order, the RTWPB 3 has encouraged establishments to adopt productivity improvement schemes, such as time and motion studies, good housekeeping, quality circles, and labor management cooperation, as well as to implement gain sharing programs.
The RTWPB added that any person, corporation, trust or firm, partnership, association, or entity which refuses or fails to pay the prescribed wage rates in accordance with Wage Order No. RB III-21 shall be subject to penal provisions under Republic Act 6727, or the Minimum Wage Fixing Law. (PNA)
