Private workers may join the poor sans pay hike

Unless private sector employees are given a salary increase soon, many of them will be considered “poor" this year. This was disclosed by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) which said that the recent pay hike granted to government employees will likely prevent them from falling below the poverty line. However, the same cannot be said for private sector workers, the agency said. Wages of government employees increased annually by 10 percent from 2006 to 2008 and by 11.37 percent from 2008 to July 2009, said Romulo Virola, NSCB secretary general. “Government employees generally have income above the poverty line...(I)t seems unlikely that government employees will go below the poverty line when the 2009 poverty statistics come out, because the increase in their income outpaces inflation," Virola said. "However, the same cannot be said of employees in the private sector, and unless they receive a wage adjustment before the end of 2009, many of them might join the ranks of the poor as of 2009," he added. At the same time, Virola acknowledged that the business sector may continue to think that “greed is good" and that no salary increase for private sector workers may happen soon. Despite the improving – but nevertheless lethargic – business environment, “poor minimum wage earners in the private sector might not get a reprieve," Virola said. “Unless business genuinely imbibes CSR [corporate social responsibility] as a virtue, unless business is willing and learns to give a bigger share of corporate profit to labor, poverty will persist." “Poverty eradication just has to be a joint responsibility of the government and the private sector," he added. Poverty eradication would remain unsuccessful if the entire country relies on government programs that control basic food prices. "...it is naive for anyone to think that poverty can be addressed by managing prices of rice and fish and levels of wages only during FIES years. Such strategies must be sustained over time so that poverty will be systematically reduced," Virola said. The Family Incomes and Expenditures Survey (FIES) 2009 will be used by the NSCB to find out if poverty incidence has improved or deteriorated since 2006. Between 2000 and 2006, FIES showed a slight decline from 27.5 percent to 26.9 percent. However, during the same period, the magnitude of poverty rose by 531,000 families from 4.147 million to 4.677 million families despite increased growth and higher per capita nominal income. “In other words, from 2000 to 2006, the Philippines experienced economic growth that was pro-poor and to a certain extent, pro-middle class," Virola said. “However, our poverty reduction program that has not exactly been an outstanding success because inflation eroded whatever increase there was in the income of the vulnerable groups." - - GMANews.TV