Workers declare the meager wage increase the regional wage boards granted in Calabarzon and Central Visayas on September 17 as unacceptable.

The order for measly wage increase of ₱21-₱75/day will take effect in Calabarzon on September 30. Workers in Central Visayas will start receiving additional daily wages of ₱33-₱43/day on October 2.

The new minimum wage in Calabarzon will be ₱560 for non-agricultural workers, ₱500 for agricultural workers and ₱425 for those in the retail and service sectors.

In Central Visayas, the new minimum wage is ₱501 for “class A” areas, ₱463 for “class B” and ₱453 for “class C.”

“We are not beggars, so a mendicant wage increase is unacceptable,” Jerome Adonis, Kilusang Mayo Uno secretary general and Makabayan’s senatorial candidate, said. He condemned the miserly wage increase especially as Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s 67th lavish birthday celebration is still in the news.

The family living wage in CALABARZON is ₱1,131 and in Central Visayas is ₱1,278; which remains more than double the ₱541-595 minimum wage in CALABARZON and ₱501-511 minimum wage in Central Visayas.

Adonis denounced the staggered method of granting wage increases and the wide gap in minimum wages across regions. Apart from Calabarzon and Central Visayas, only the National Capital Region has implemented a wage increase of ₱35/day this year.

Adonis said the ₱1,200 national minimum wage demanded by the workers is only enough for them and their families to survive. “In fact, that is still insufficient compared to the profit we create for the capitalists,” he said.

In Cebu, for example, worker productivity nearly doubled from 1989 to 2023 (88%), but the average minimum wage fell 22% during the same period.

“Capitalists took advantage of the 88% increase in workers’ productivity to amass profits while denying workers a fair wage increase,” Jaime Paglinawan of AMA-Sugbo-KMU said.

Labor leaders call on all workers to strengthen their unity to push the regime to raise wages to a survivable level.