Meager joys

Four headlines today, as of this writing, bannered the wage board’s granting of a P35 increase for minimum wage workers in the National Capital Region.

The natural reactions were: “At last, a hike!” and “Is it enough?”

Well, what can P35 get you nowadays?

A loaf of white bread and a head of lettuce? The better to make a weird sandwich with.

Perhaps four to five eggs, or five packets of three-in-one coffee? Just a bit more for breakfast, yes, but not nearly enough for a roof above one’s head that can be called one’s own.

To the average wage worker, an additional P35 a day is good — better than zero, and better than waiting endless years for any adjustment to one’s ability to survive in this world.

The action by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB) brought the minimum wage “from P610 to P645 for the non-agriculture sector.”

For the agriculture sector, as well as service and retail establishments employing 15 workers or less,  and  manufacturing establishments regularly employing less than 10 workers, the adjustment is from P573 to P608, reports say.

After 15 days from publication, workers may start benefiting from the wage increase, or on 17 July.

Businesses that may be exempted from giving the increased rate include “retail and service establishments regularly employing not more than 10 workers, and enterprises affected by natural calamities and/or human-induced disasters,” which “may apply to the RTWPB for an exemption from the wage increase.”

The P35 increase does seem “measly” compared to the P150 wage hike demanded by worker groups.

The travails of families struggling to make ends meet cannot be considered enough. When calculations are made about how much money an average “family of five” needs to survive, we know it doesn’t quite cover all the factors to call a life “decent.”

It’s not just food that we require to live a happy life, no matter how much funding government puts into campaigns on the joys of simple living.

The cost of food takes up a chunk of the salaries workers get, and of course one has to think of other costs — transport, rent, clothing, wellness.

We all know the world has radically changed — the skyrocketing prices of food alone are signs of the times, bringing to the fore issues of hunger and poverty, food sufficiency, climate change, invasions and even wars. It feels like there is more to contend with nowadays — as if we are finally feeling the effects of those decades misspent and misused by our leaders.

We now live in times of great trepidation — the planet is darkly foretold to be dying; people are slowly but surely destroying each with their fanaticism, fascism and what other F word you can think of; and time is running out.

I should think a P35 increase in the daily wage should be enough for now. It should buy those wage decision-makers time, at least, to come up with a good excuse next time.