Workers have lost P82 in value of wages due to inflation

Photo from ING

 

The labor group Partido Manggagawa (PM) declared that the real value of wages of workers in Metro Manila have been reduced by P82 due to worsening inflation. Yesterday, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) announced that headline inflation has risen to 6.9% for September 2022. “We call on Congress to raise wages by P100 across-the-broad so that workers can recover their lost purchasing power,” asserted Judy Ann Miranda, PM secretary-general.

 

Based on the computations of the labor coalition Nagkaisa, the P570 minimum wage in Metro Manila is only worth P488 due to increases in prices of food, electricity and other basic commodities. The PSA noted that inflation for electricity and gas were among the highest.

 

In 2018, PM had already estimated that the daily cost of living is around P1,300. “Obviously we need to update this figure as inflation has ratcheted up in the past four years. Whatever the exact number, we need urgent action from the government and Congress. Thus, our call for a P100 wage hike within the first 100 days of the new government,” Miranda insisted.

 

She added that ““The focus now is on worsening inflation that has eroded workers' nominal wages. But we have not even tackled growing inequality due to the stagnation of real wages while productivity is booming. From 2001 to 2016, labor productivity grew by at least 50 percent, yet the real wages did not grow at all. Workers have been denied their fair share in the fruits of production.”

 

Aside from the specific wage hike demand, PM also asked for a comprehensive government response on the worsening economic crisis and other covariate shocks—man-made disasters that affect whole communities—that has led to mass layoffs. Some 4,000 garment workers were retrenched at Sports City in the Mactan Cebu export zone and a few thousand workers also lost their jobs due to the temporary closure of Coca-Cola plants in Iloilo, Bohol, Davao, Cavite, Zamboanga, and Camarines Sur. 

 

“The government must set in place social protection systems that mitigate the impact on jobs, income, health and well-being of people. Mass layoffs and strong typhoons are all covariate shocks and the new normal in our lives. Social protection is one response to this challenge,” Miranda explained.

 

PM is pushing for public employment, preferably in climate jobs, for unemployed workers over a period of 100 days to nine months at minimum wages or P10,000, whichever is higher. The group is also calling for wage subsidies equivalent to 75% of the prevailing minimum wage to save jobs of workers in micro, medium and small enterprises. 

October 6, 2022