DoLE eyes P50 NCR wage hike

Approximately 1.2 million minimum wage earners in the National Capital Region (NCR) are set to receive a P50 daily wage hike, the Department of Labor and Employment (DoLE) announced Monday.

The increase, unanimously approved by the NCR Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board (RTWPB), will raise the daily minimum wage for the non-agricultural sector from P645 to P695.

For the agriculture sector, service and retail establishments employing 15 or fewer workers, and manufacturing establishments with fewer than 10 workers, the daily minimum wage will increase from P608 to P658.

According to the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC), this increase translates to an additional P1,100 per month for a five-day workweek and P1,300 for a six-day workweek.

Under the new rate, non-agriculture workers on a five-day workweek will have an estimated monthly take-home pay of P15,247, while those on a six-day workweek will take home about P18,216.

These figures include mandatory social welfare benefits such as 13th-month pay, service incentive leave, Social Security System, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG.

In approving the hike, the NCR wage board considered the Philippines’ gross domestic product (GDP), which stood at 5.4 percent in the first quarter of 2025, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority. The board also noted that NCR’s inflation rate eased to 1.7 percent in May 2025, and the unemployment rate as of April 2025 was 5.1 percent.

The NWPC estimates that around 1.7 million full-time wage and salary workers earning above the minimum wage may indirectly benefit from enterprise-level wage adjustments aimed at correcting wage distortions. A wage distortion occurs when the new minimum wage overlaps with, reduces, or eliminates the difference between existing wage rates and the previous minimum wage.

The wage increase is scheduled to take effect on 18 July, immediately following the anniversary date of the last minimum wage increase in NCR on 17 July 2024.