PM says workers owed P50 in lost purchasing power, unpaid productivity share

Press Release


May 5, 2011


The Partido ng Manggagawa (PM) stated that employers owed workers at least P50 due to lost purchasing power and unpaid share in increased productivity in reaction to the announcement by the Employers Confederation of the Philippines that it can only afford P13 for the wage hike. “Capitalists are again trying to shortchange workers. Despite the minimum wage increases granted, workers still have P25 to regain in depleted purchasing power since year 2000 and another P25 to get as their share in improved productivity since last year,” declared Renato Magtubo, PM national chair.



He also added that “Workers are not children that can be pacified with candy. P13 is mere change thrown in the way of workers.”



PM is asking the NCR wage board to grant the P75 wage petition as immediate relief for the workers. The group also estimates that the cost of living for a family of six in Metro Manila is P1,010 per day as per its study.



Magtubo lambasted the employers for threatening layoffs and closures should the P75 petition be approved. “Capitalists are wolves in sheep’s clothing, claiming a desire to save the economy from the catastrophe of a wage hike when in fact they are just out to protect their profits from the workers’ claim to the fruits of our labor,” he insisted.



Magtubo countered the ECOP’s dire impact of the P75 wage hike. “To illustrate, a gas station owner with 10 gas attendants will fork out only P750 more in wages per day, equivalent to the cost of five cups of gourmet coffee. It will hardly dent the lifestyle of even a small capitalist but it will go a long way to feed, house, heal and school a worker’s family,” he elaborated.



PM arrived at its estimate of P25 in lost purchasing power using the 171.5 consumer price index (CPI) as of April 2011 according to the National Statistics Office. The base figure of CPI in year 2000 was 100 and the minimum wage in that year was P250.



P25 = [ P250 X (171.5 -100) / 100 ] – ( P404 - P250 )



It also arrived at the estimate of P25 in unpaid productivity share using the 2010 Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of P2.43 trillion, the annual increase in GDP of 7.3% and the total number of wage and salaried workers of 19.3 million. The improved productivity created by workers is simply the increased wealth and is computed as 7.3% of P2.43 trillion. The workers share in that greater wealth is simply estimated by dividing by the number of wage and salaried employees and the 365 number of days in a year.



P25 = ( P2.43 trillion X 7.3% ) / (19.3 million X 365 ) ###