Philippines Among The Countries With Lowest Minimum Wage
A study conducted by an e-commerce firm, Picodi, found that that the Philippines is one of the worst countries to live for minimum wage earners.
The report released by Picodi last January 13, 2020 showed that the net pay received by minimum wage earners in the Philippines as of January 2020 stood at PHP5,922, which is 10% higher than the minimum wage same time last year.
It’s a significant boost compared to the other countries in their report, placing the Philippines at the 17th spot out of the 54 countries in terms of an increase in the minimum wage. Neighboring countries meanwhile only jumped 9.1% for Malaysia, 8.7% for Hong Kong, and only 1.6% in Thailand.
Despite seeing one of the higher minimum wage increases, the food prices eat up a significant portion of the compensation that minimum wage earners took home. In figures, about 75.1% of the monthly basic salary of minimum wage earners is spent on basic food items alone. While the surge in wages managed to outrun the increase of prices in the Philippines this year (compared to last year which eats up about 81.3% of worker’s monthly pay), the ratio of food prices to the minimum wage is still not ideal.
Australia followed by the United Kingdom and Ireland has the best food prices to minimum wage ratio. Only 7% of their minimum wage goes to essential food products, according to Picodi.
Meanwhile, in countries like Nigeria or Uzbekistan, the minimum wage is so low that it cannot cover the entire cost of even the most basic shopping basket, as mentioned by Picodi.
As a key takeaway, Picodi noted that the minimum wage should protect employees against unduly low earnings.
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