National Capital Region (NCR) workers are grossly insulted with the ₱85 daily wage increase announced by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) this June 30, according to Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU). DOLE touts the wage hike as a “historic increase” in the region approved by the NCR Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards.

The ₱60/day increase will first take effect on July 19, while the additional ₱25 will only be implemented in January 2027. This will raise the current regional wage from ₱695/day to ₱780/day. Meanwhile, wages for those in the agriculture and service sectors and in retail businesses with 15 or fewer workers, and manufacturing firms with 10 workers or fewer, will become ₱743/day from the current ₱658/day.

KMU-NCR said the wage hike is “token” as it is extremely far from the real cost of decent living. “The ₱85 will not be enough to match the ₱1,200 Family Living Wage needed by a family of five to live daily with dignity,” the group said.

The meager wage increase will quickly vanish amid rapid surge in prices of goods, transport fares, electricity, and water, the group added. “Workers demand not alms, but economic justice,” it said.

For KMU’s national leadership, not only is the wage increase very negligible and staggered, it will even be implemented only in NCR, severely constricting its coverage. DOLE’s data itself shows the increase will “benefit” only 1.1 million Filipino workers earning daily wages.

“[It] has even narrower coverage since it is limited to NCR, while millions of workers nationwide are affected by a crisis that the government fails to address,” KMU secretary general Mary Ane Castillo said.

Castillo further explained that DOLE Sec. Francis Tolentino should not boast the wage increase as “historic” as the agency did not voluntarily grant it. “This was earned by the strong collective action of workers and the Filipino people,” she said.

KMU’s national leadership called on Filipino workers to sustain and intensify their struggle until the sector’s just demands are achieved. “The fight continues until all workers—across industries, whether regular or contractual, in private or public—win a ₱1200 nationwide living wage!”

KMU-NCR consequently renewed its call to abolish the regional wage boards that suppress wages. The regional wage boards were created under the Wage Rationalization Act (Republic Act No. 6727) of the US-Aquino I regime.