House Makabayan bloc seeks P33K/month minimum wage for gov’t employees

The House Makabayan bloc has called on Congress to pass their bill providing for a monthly P33,000 minimum wage for all government employees.

House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro of ACT Teachers, House Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas and Kabataan party-list representative Raoul Manuel made the proposal under their House Bill 6560, which they filed on December 7.

“We filed this because we want to peg the Salary Grade 1 to P33,000 [a month] which is based on a family living wage. Even a number of government employees are hard pressed to make do with a P13,000 a month under the existing Salary Grade 1. That is even behind the minimum wage for the National Capital Region at P570 [a day],” Castro said at a news conference.

”Kaya napapanahon, nararapat at reasonable na talagang ito ang asikasuhin ng ating Kongreso, itong pagtataas ng sweldo ng ating government employees Isinusulong ito ng Makabayan para magbigay talaga ng malaking alwan sa ating mga government employees. Tuloy ang laban ng mga government employees para sa nakabubuhay at disenteng sweldo para sa kanila at sa kanilang pamilya," she added.

(This increase is timely, just and reasonable for Congress to take action on as this will really alleviate the plight of the employees. We should continue to fight for a living and decent wage.)

In their explanatory note on the measure, the bill’s authors noted that under the existing Salary Standardization law, the lowest-paid employee in the civil service will only be given a meager salary increase of P1,932 increase (from P11,068 to P13,000 per month) to be delivered in four tranches of P483 per month.

“This translates to a measly P21.95 per day increase which is much lower compared to the P25 increase in minimum wage in the NCR in 2018. This is, historically, the lowest pay hike for government employees,” the authors said.

“The P 13,000 monthly gross salary for Salary Grade 1 by the year 2023 is way below the family living wage for a family of five pegged at P 1,119 per day or P33,570 per month,” they added.

They also cited the case of middle-level employees, including teachers who comprise the majority in the civilian bureaucracy, who will only receive P27,000 a month (Salary Grade 11) in 2023 under the existing law.

“The  teachers  are  frequently  told  that their only problem is  poor financial management. But what is there to manage when those supposed  finances are quickly drained away by taxes, by their basic needs that grow more and more expensive every day,” the authors pointed out.

”In the case of some employees like teachers, nurses, and doctors...even the work-related expenses that should have been provided by the government in the first place have also been increasing,” they added.

Moreover, the authors said the previous Duterte administration doubled the base pay of entry-level uniformed personnel in 2018 to P29,668 per month from a monthly rate of P14,834 which means the government has money to spare to state employees who are just as competent and deserving.

“It is the height of injustice that other public employees who are fulfilling just as much duties for the public are not given the salaries rightfully due to them,” they said. — RSJ, GMA Integrated News