Sotto backs P1,000 minimum wage

March 16, 2022 10:34 AM

TUGUEGARAO City: Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto 3rd on Tuesday pushed for a P1,000 daily minimum wage in the National Capital Region.

TUGUEGARAO City: Senate President Vicente "Tito" Sotto 3rd on Tuesday pushed for a P1,000 daily minimum wage in the National Capital Region.

The current minimum wage in Metro Manila is P537. The last time minimum wage was increased by the National Wage and Productivity Commission was on Oct. 30, 2018.

Sotto said the daily minimum wage in Metro Manila should be pegged at P1,000 so that workers can cope with the unabated increases in the price of basic products triggered by the rise in oil prices.

"If it were up to me, in these trying times, dapat ang minimum wage is (the minimum wage should be) P1,000," he said in a chance interview at the sidelines of the Lacson-Sotto campaign sortie here.

He said a P1,000 daily minimum wage can help Metro Manila workers adjust to the adverse impact of oil price increases brought about by the war in Ukraine.

Sen. Panfilo "Ping" Lacson and Sotto are running for president and vice president, respectively, in the May 2022 national elections.

Lacson, however, said the regional wage boards should decide the minimum wage appropriate for a certain region.

"We must not look at it in terms of real wages. Let us look at the living wage per region because it matters how much wage increase is needed," he said.

The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, the country's largest group of labor federations, filed a petition on Monday before the Regional Tripartite Wage and Productivity Board for a P470 increase in the minimum wage of workers in the NCR.

The TUCP made the appeal a day before the prices of petroleum products increased anew — P12.20 to P12.30 per liter for diesel, and P6.80 to P7.10 per liter for gasoline.