A new attempt to legislate an across-the-board minimum wage hike has been filed in the 20th Congress—even as the country’s economic managers earlier warned the measure could reverse recent gains in inflation control and burden the poorest Filipinos.
Senator Juan Miguel Zubiri said he has refiled the bill, criticizing the inaction of the 19th Congress that led to the proposal’s collapse, in an interview with Kabankalan-based media on Tuesday, July 1.
He called the failure of the bicameral conference committee—a joint panel tasked to reconcile conflicting versions of legislation—to meet and finalize the measure a form of “sabotage”.
The Senate and House of Representatives had passed separate versions of the bill, proposing P100 and P200 wage increases respectively. But the lack of a bicam meeting caused the measure to lapse.
“If only they had met, and I was there, I would have appealed to the congressmen and senators to pass this already for our workers and laborers who have long been waiting,” Zubiri said.
“As hard and zealous as I was in fighting for this in the last Congress, I will do the same now. I will fight hard,” he added.
Opposition
However, economic managers under the Marcos administration have cautioned against the move. In a joint position paper submitted to Malacañang, agencies including the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) estimated that a P200 wage hike could raise inflation by about two percentage points. In comparison, a P100 hike may result in a 0.7 percentage point increase.
“The substantial minimum wage increase may lead to higher production costs, which could result in higher prices that may disproportionately affect low-income households,” portion of the paper read.
The economic team pointed out that while inflation has already eased to an average of 1.9 percent so far this year—with a further drop to 1.3 percent in May 2025—such gains could be undone by the wage hike, potentially triggering renewed inflationary pressures.
They also emphasized that wage increases not backed by productivity improvements could worsen inflationary pressures and hit the poorest Filipinos the hardest.
“A wage hike will inevitably result in higher prices in the goods sold by enterprises who will have to accommodate the wage increase. This will result in the poorest of the poor, who are mostly in the informal sector and do not even make minimum wage, bearing the brunt of the impact of the wage increase,” they said.*
Reymund Titong is a Filipino journalist steadily building his voice in the field of news reporting, driven by a commitment to tell meaningful and relevant stories.
He serves as a correspondent for Rappler, maintains a personal blog on Medium, and is the communications officer of Hope Builders Organization Negros Island.