House solons: Legislated minimum wage hike should be pursued with caution

Passing a law increasing the daily minimum wage of private sector workers should be made with caution, members of the House of Representatives said Tuesday.

House Assistant Minority Leader Migs Nograles of PBA party-list, House appropriations panel vice chairperson Zia Adiong of Lanao del Sur and Rodge Gutierrez of 1-Rider party-list made the response a day after the Senate approved the bill granting a P100 daily minimum wage hike for private sector workers on third and final reading.

The lawmakers echoed the position of their colleagues, House ways and means panel Joey Salceda and House appropriations panel senior senior vice chairperson Stella Quimbo, who earlier said that the legislated minimum wage hike would hit micro, small and medium enterprises, which comprise at least 97% of the businesses in country.

“This should not be taken lightly, as pointed out by our financial experts and esteemed colleagues. We urge caution in increasing the minimum wage by legislation that is not well studied, kasi baka pumalya ang mga negosyo at mas maraming mawalan ng trabaho,” Gutierrez said in a press conference.

(This measure could cause businesses to fail and many people would lose their jobs.) 

“Aside from legislated mechanisms, there is the executive [department] and the Department of Labor and Employment which can increase wages, but to implement an across-the-board wage increase, mabigat po talaga [would really cost a lot]. We should approach it cautiously,” Gutierrez added.

Nograles, meanwhile, said that a legislated wage hike will be sufficiently funded once the country’s Constitution is amended to allow foreigners to own vital industries, including public utilities.

“Of course, we welcome any wage increase because the cost of living is getting higher, the P100 increase is good, but this is not enough. This will entail additional costs for the MSME businesses. The losses of these small businesses [stemming from the wage hike] could be covered by increased investments, so wage hikes will also be sustainable,” Nograles, vice chairperson of the House agrarian reform committee, added.

Adiong, for his part, said that while the intention of the wage hike proponents are good, not all good intentions will turn out to be beneficial in the long run.

“It is a well-intentioned bill, we laud the intention of the proponents but P100 is not even enough. Because when you legislate [wage hike], the hard question is, how do we do it? Do we have the capacity?” Adiong said.

“If we are to require all private companies to increase wages, can they sustain that?,” Adiong added. — BM, GMA Integrated News