Entry-level nurses at national government hospitals are set to receive annual salary increases totaling more than 20 percent by 2027, Quezon City Rep. Marvin Rillo (District 4), a member of the House Committee on Appropriations, announced Sunday.

Rillo said the basic pay of entry-level nurses at Department of Health (DoH) hospitals will steadily rise by an average of 4.8 percent each year, reaching P44,148 per month by 1 January 2027. He added that the P38,413 monthly salary will increase to P40,208 effective 1 January 2025, and to P42,178 effective 1 January 2026.

The increases stem from President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s Executive Order 64, which updated the salaries of civilian government personnel, according to Rillo.

“Right now, entry-level nurses at DoH hospitals are already earning P38,413 monthly, a 4.9 percent increase from the P36,619 they received in 2023,” Rillo said.

“The adjustments amount to a cumulative 20.5 percent pay raise over four years,” he noted. Rillo made the announcement ahead of the national observance of Nurses’ Week.

The Philippines observes Nurses’ Week during the last week of October each year to promote public awareness of the nursing profession’s importance to public health.

Rillo authored House Bill 5276, which seeks to raise the pay of entry-level nurses at DoH hospitals to Salary Grade 21, or P67,005 per month, in an effort to discourage them from seeking employment abroad.

Due to low wages, the Philippines has been losing thousands of nurses who leave each year to work in the United States and other foreign labor markets.

The World Health Organization estimates that the country currently faces a shortage of 127,000 nurses — a figure expected to grow to 250,000 by 2030.