Ni NOEL ABUEL
Naniniwala si House Ways and Means Chair Joey Sarte Salceda (Albay, 2nd district) na ang minimum na sahod sa bansa ay malubha at halos nakakahiya na at hindi handa para sa mga pagtaas ng presyo ngayong taon.
Ayon sa kongresista, ang 2022 ay ikalimang taon na walang pagtaas sa minimum wage rates sa National Capital Region (NCR) na hindi na naaayon sa kasalukuyang panahon.
“Sadly, the NCR wage drives the needle for wages in the country, and NCR has seen no minimum wage increase since 2018. That leaves ordinary, working-class Filipinos totally unprepared for the price hikes that will inevitably come due to rising oil prices,” sabi ni Salceda.
Batay sa kalkulasyon ni Salceda, ang minimum wage ng NCR na P537 kada araw ay nagkakahalaga na lamang ng P464 sa mga presyo noong 2018.
“That means that today’s NCR minimum wage would be able to buy P73 less in goods in 2018. That is grossly unfair to the working class,” ani Salceda.
“Naiintindihan ko ang pag-aalinlangan laban sa pagtaas ng minimum na sahod. Maaari itong magpataas ng mga gastos sa negosyo at mabawasan ang aktibidad sa ekonomiya. Ngunit ang mga taong gumagawa ng argumento ay nakakalimutan na ang mga manggagawa ay mga consumers din at kung may sapat na pera para ipanggastos,” dagdag pa ng kongresista.
“The 2021 Nobel Prize for Economics was awarded for work that challenged the theory that higher minimum wages depresses employment. The idea that higher minimum wages is bad for jobs does not respect the fact that consumers are workers, and consumers need better wages to do more spending on businesses. So, I do am very skeptical about claims by certain businesses that they will be forced to lay workers off if we raised minimum wages,” sabi pa ni Salceda.
Aniya, bukod sa pagtatas sa sahod, tamang gawin ay dapat na pasanin hindi lamang ng mga manggagawa kung hindi dapat din ang mga employers.
“Besides, increasing wages is the right thing to do at this point. The burden of price hikes has to be shared, between workers and their employers. Shared pain and shared benefits is the principle of a working economy,” paliwanag ni Salceda.
Sinabi pa ng kongresista na ieendorso nito kay Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello ang petisyon para sa wage hikes at ipapaliwanag ang pangangailangan nito.
“As Economic Recovery Co-Chair of the House, I will support the petitions. I hope it will boost the petitions of labor groups. Their petitions tend to be dismissed as ‘populist.’ I would like to offer a different but fully supportive perspective to the proposal to raise wages,” sabi pa ni Salceda.
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