The family living wage is Php1,160 as of May 2023. However, minimum wages since wage regionalization in 1989 don’t just fall far short of the ever rising living wage — they haven’t even kept up with inflation.

Php170 covers both the Php164 and Php169 averages needed to recover the real value of wages. A Php170 across-the-board wage hike will take only 16.2% of enterprise profits.

Wage hikes ranging from Php20 to Php368 are needed to return wages to their real value upon wage regionalization in 1989. If the Php164 average of these wage hikes is applied uniformly, 9 regions would still not be able to recover their real value then.

Wage hikes ranging from Php57 to Php368 are needed to return wages to their highest real value since wage regionalization in 1989. If the Php169 average of these wage hikes is applied uniformly, 9 regions would still not be able to recover the highest real value they reached.