By : Phil Star
Source : http://www.philstar.com
Category : Small Business Grant
MANILA, Philippines - A think-tank said there is no reason to deny employees and workers of a P125 across the board wage hike as Philippine companies continue to increase their earnings.
In a statement, IBON Foundation cited the 2009 Annual Survey of Philippine Business and Industry of the National Statistics Office, which showed that all of the establishments in the country "of all employment sizes" had combined profits of about P1.63 trillion. Philippine firms in 2009 had a total of 3.94 million employees.
"Granting an across the board wage hike of P125 means workers will receive an additional P3,802 per month, and that employers will spend an additional P49,427 per employee per year (assuming 13 months of pay).," IBON said.
IBON said the total cost of the proposed wage hike will be P194.9 billion, which will leave businesses with about P1.435 trillion in income or a 12-percent cut in their profits.
The country's top 1,000 corporations, IBON said, had a combined net income of P804.1 billion in 2010, nearly double the P416 billion they had in 2008 despite a global financial crisis and weak global trade.
"These enterprises and big corporate profits starkly contrast with the conditions of workers. The average daily basic pay that wage and salary workers in the country actually received - as opposed to merely mandated minimum wages that are not necessarily actually paid - increased from P222 in P2001 to P321 in 2011 (July estimate)," IBON said.
Although wages increased by over 45 percent between 2001 and 2011, prices of goods and services rose by 62 percent.
"Inflation over this 11-year period averaged 5.2 percent including a peak of 9.3 percent in 2008 upon the steep increase in oil prices then. The wage increase was more than offset by inflation and workers instead saw the real value of their wages drop P24 or a nearly 11-percent decline," IBON said. A large wage hike, IBON said, will benefit the economy because the transfer of money from rich to poor households will increase aggregate demand and stimulate the economy.
"High-income households have a higher propensity to save and low-income households, so deprived even of basic necessities, a higher propensity to consume," IBON said.
The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines has filed a petition before the Labor department's Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board to ask for a wage hike of between P90 for workers in Metro Manila and in two other regions.
The Employers Confederation of the Philippines, however, has warned that any wage hike could force small businesses to close down owing to rising costs and shrinking revenues. Cheryl M. Arcibal
Source : http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=789795&publicationSubCategoryId=200
