Johnalen Mae Alcantara

Wage Problem

Philippine wage policy has been based on the principle of making the Philippines
competitive by keeping wages as low as possible. With low wages, products made in the
country will be cheaper and more competitive, and companies would want to base their
manufacturing plants in the Philippines. The logic indeed seems impeccable. Unless, of
course, we note the practice of the last few decades.

It is easy to say you want more when you're not the one paying the cost. If it were
easy for businesses to pay higher wages, then they would! Now think about this. If a
business has 3 people working for it, and it is a very small business, but the people want
to be paid more. So they start getting people to protest and then the minimum wage gets
raised. The business can no longer pay all 3, so they fire one. Now that person that
wanted more, has nothing at all. This is precisely what happened in Detroit. Detroit was
known for having amazing cars. But after a while the people wanted the wage to be
higher, so they made the car companies pay them more.

In the end the companies could not afford to pay them, so after laying thousands
of people off, they eventually all moved to a place where the minimum wage was lower,
to prevent shutting down. This completely crashed the economy. So wanting something
but not paying the costs is not all fair. And if you want to be paid more that much, go to a
higher income job.
Ma. Angela G. Daguio

Wage Problems

Low wages also mean that Filipinos will continuously be going abroad for
employment. But, if wages increase continuously in the Philippines, at a certain point,
they will be high enough to retain more workers. The studies show that wages abroad
have to be four times local wages for the flow of workers abroad to continue.

It propose that it would be best for the economy if wages are consciously made to
increase every year. The rate of increase should be just about 1 or 2 percent higher than
inflation. This would at least keep it in pace with productivity growth, which we hope is
improving every year. Actually, productivity is also a function of higher wages, because
the prospect of increasing wages every year would push employers to increase the
productivity of their employees.

Raising the minimum wage backfires, as it makes it more difficult for teens and
students to acquire beginning jobs. It increases business costs without a concrete
knowledge of the factors involved in their decision-making and hiring process. The
government should not be taking actions which may make it more difficult for workers to
find jobs, however well-meaning they may be.
Maricel D. Malabanan

Wage Problems

While minimum wage is not what we need as a "living" wage, it is not something
that should be regulated or artificially inflated. Raising the minimum wage solves
nothing. It results in higher cost of goods, higher taxes levied on businesses, higher
unemployment, higher the poverty level, etc. You can raise the minimum wage to a year
and you will end up with a year poverty level.

We need to reduce our reliance in imports. Given the situation where there is no
imports of any goods. We have to rely on what we can produce and sell in country. The
poorer the population becomes the more we look to cheaper alternative goods. The
cheaper goods are produced outside of the United States. It's not realistic to think we
could become 100% self sufficient but there is a large gap that can be narrowed.

Encourage those that have to spend their money and increase their spending in the
goods instead of penalizing them. This country should not strive to be independent. It
already is independent. To keep its vulnerable economic development process going, the
Philippines needs to pursue an independent foreign policy that seeks to make new
friendships without straining or ending tried-and-tested ones. Also the minimum wage is
not keeping up with inflation making it harder and harder for people to afford things,
which is affecting the economy even more because people are not buying, or they will
buy cheap things that are made somewhere else, which stimulates a different country's
economy.
Ma. Eva E. Portugal
Wage Problems

Many people dedicate mass amounts of their precious time fighting to raise
minimum wage. Their perception of minimum wage, however, only goes skin deep; their
belief is that it should be a living wage, so that a low income labourer could provide for
his or her family. The problem with that concept, as previously mentioned, is that they
only scratch the surface when they decide what minimum wage should be set at.
There are two issues involved with ceilings and floors in the market place, shortage and
surplus.
When a ceiling is imposed, it causes a shortage, because the price of which a
product has to be offered does not cover its cost of production; and producers dont waste
resources on things that arent profitable. The other aforementioned issue is surplus.
Surplus originates when price floors are imposed, and youre not allowed to pay any
lower than the arbitrarily set price; even if the value of the product is less than the price
that has to be charged according to law. An example of a surplus would be the correlation
between minimum wage and unemployment. Businesses can only pay their employees so
much for their work, and they will only compensate them for the value of output an
employee produces. If the value of labor is set at an arbitrarily high price, it is no longer
economically feasible for a business to higher an employee whose units of output dont
equal or exceed his or her compensation for work.
The phenomena that exists under these circumstances is often overlooked by
many; and a recession only exacerbates the issue. While many highly skilled workers are
out of work as well as low skilled workers, they will most generally be competing for the
same jobs during a recession. A business, in turn, will be more likely to hire the high
skilled workers over the low skilled workers, because they will get more output for the
same price at which they'd pay for less output from someone with a lower skill set.
Kim Alyssa E. Vidal

Wage Problems

Many people dedicate mass amounts of their precious time fighting to raise
minimum wage. Their perception of minimum wage, however, only goes skin deep; their
belief is that it should be a living wage, so that a low income labourer could provide for
his or her family. The problem with that concept, as previously mentioned, is that they
only scratch the surface when they decide what minimum wage should be set at.
There are two issues involved with ceilings and floors in the market place, shortage and
surplus.

When a ceiling is imposed, it causes a shortage, because the price of which a

product has to be offered does not cover its cost of production; and producers dont waste
resources on things that arent profitable. The other aforementioned issue is surplus.
Surplus originates when price floors are imposed, and youre not allowed to pay any
lower than the arbitrarily set price; even if the value of the product is less than the price
that has to be charged according to law. An example of a surplus would be the correlation
between minimum wage and unemployment. Businesses can only pay their employees so
much for their work, and they will only compensate them for the value of output an
employee produces. If the value of labor is set at an arbitrarily high price, it is no longer
economically feasible for a business to higher an employee whose units of output dont
equal or exceed his or her compensation for work.

The phenomena that exists under these circumstances is often overlooked by

many; and a recession only exacerbates the issue. While many highly skilled workers are
out of work as well as low skilled workers, they will most generally be competing for the
same jobs during a recession. A business, in turn, will be more likely to hire the high
skilled workers over the low skilled workers, because they will get more output for the
same price at which they'd pay for less output from someone with a lower skill set.