Labor group assails P42 wage hike in Central Visayas

CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) on Sunday criticized the P42 daily minimum wage increase approved for private-sector workers in Central Visayas, saying the adjustment was inadequate amid the region’s high inflation and rising cost of living.

“This severely lacking and grossly insulting P42 wage hike does not make any sense because Region VII just recorded the highest inflation rate last July, and, in fact, the annual poverty incidence in Central Visayas is over eight times that of Metro Manila,” TUCP said in a statement.

The labor group renewed its call for Congress to pass House Bill No. 88, which seeks a P200 daily minimum wage increase.

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READ: 2nd NCR wage order in effect as 1st order still in court

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The new wage order, approved by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board in Central Visayas (RTWPB-7) and unanimously affirmed by the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), will raise the minimum wage in the region by P42 starting Oct. 14.

Workers in Class A areas, covering expanded Metro Cebu from Carcar City in the south to Danao City in the north, will receive P582 per day, up from P540.

Those in Class B areas, covering the rest of Cebu province, as well as Bohol, Negros Oriental and Siquijor, will receive P542 per day, up from P500.

Economic conditions

Negros Oriental and Siquijor remain under RTWPB-7 because the newly established Negros Island Region has yet to convene its regional wage board.

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The new rates will take effect 15 days after their scheduled publication on Monday.

Meanwhile, the minimum monthly wage for domestic workers, or “kasambahays,” will increase to P7,500 from P7,000. The Department of Labor and Employment (Dole) has yet to announce when the new rate will take effect.

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Labor Secretary Francis Tolentino, who chairs the NWPC, said the wage increase was unanimously approved after the commission considered prevailing economic conditions in Central Visayas. Five of the seven NWPC members attended the deliberations.

The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that Central Visayas’ inflation eased to 8.7 percent in July from 10.1 percent in June but remained the highest among the country’s regions for the 12th consecutive month.

PSA data also showed that 17.3 percent of Central Visayas’ population lived below the poverty threshold in 2023, compared with 1.8 percent in the National Capital Region.

TUCP said the new P582 minimum wage remained far below the estimated P1,400 daily family living wage in the region.

‘Failure’

It said the P42 daily wage increase, equivalent to P1,092 more per month, should not be viewed as substantial “because the entire monthly gain is still less than what a family would need for a single day of living expenses.”

“A wage increase that cannot even meet one day’s living wage is a glaring failure and indictment of our obsolete regional wage board system and a reason for Dole to be ashamed of itself,” TUCP said.

According to Tolentino, Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) could be the next region to receive a wage increase. Its latest wage order took effect on Oct. 5, 2025, raising the minimum wage to between P508 and P600.

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“The new wage order in Calabarzon will be approved very soon. But we ask the public to wait since there is a process,” Tolentino said in an interview with dzBB on Sunday. /cb