According to Partido Manggagawa (PM), the proposal of Representative Joel R. Chua (3rd District of Manila) to replace the current wage regionalization scheme with a wage clustering system is welcome in the sense that it founded on a recognition of the failures of the existing wage fixing system and thus opens a window for a discussion of a better mechanism. “Wage clustering is better than regionalization but one national minimum wage is best,” Rene Magtubo, PM national chair, explained.

He added that “We agree, as Rep. Chua asserts, that wage regionalization has led a huge gap between wages of regions that are not substantiated by differences in cost of living, and also has led to complexity in implementation as the DOLE has to monitor almost 50 minimum wages across the country.”

For this reason, PM is pushing for a national minimum wage as a floor. Differences between actual wages should be based on seniority, skills and productivity, according to the group.

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