The bicameral conference committee have agreed to fix the monthly minimum wage of domestic workers or house help at P2,500, announced Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Ejercito Estrada yesterday.

The second and final round of discussions on the disagreeing provisions of the Kasambahay Bills (Senate Bill 78 and House Bill 6144) conducted Monday evening which lasted until past midnight resolved to include a provision prescribing minimum wages for kasambahay, as introduced by Estrada.

Estrada, concurrent chairman of the Senate committee on labor, employment and human resources development and congressional Oversight Committee on Labor and Employment, said the panel agreed to set the base pay for domestic work, thereby increasing those stipulated in the Labor Code.

Currently, the minimum wage for domestic workers as stated in Article 143 of the Labor Code is pegged at P800 in Metro Manila and highly urbanized cities, P650 in other chartered cities and first-class municipalities, and P550 for other municipalities.

The panel moved to adopt a Senate provision on minimum wage for domestic workers, which prescribes P2,500 monthly salary for those working in the National Capital Region, P2,000 for those in chartered cities and first-class municipalities, and P1,500 for those in other municipalities.

Estrada cites that the last time the minimum wage for household helpers was augmented was 19 years ago, through Republic Act 7655 as approved last 1993.

“The amounts stated in our Labor Code are very much outdated and unrealistic, considering the high cost of living especially in the metropolis. I think it is high time to increase the minimum wage which can be considered decent compensation,” Estrada said.

Estrada, together with the members of the bicameral conference committee, believes that the amount is still affordable and reasonable as the panel considered the total income of a middle-class household and its employed members.

“We are also not preventing well-off employers from paying much higher wages to their household helpers. We just want to give kasambahay what is due them,” Estrada said.

After one year from the effectivity of the act and every year thereafter, the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards shall review and if proper, adjust the minimum wage rates of household domestic workers.

Apart from increased wages, household workers will also be entitled to membership in Social Security System (SSS), PhilHealth, and PAG-IBIG. The employers will shoulder the payment of contribution for social benefits of minimum wage earners.

The bicameral conference committee is set to release a final and reconciled version of the proposed “Batas Kasambahay” this week and have the same ratified by both chambers by Monday.*PNA