In a public hearing conducted by the RTWPB here, executives of hotels, restaurants, and other tourism-oriented establishments said that the operations of several malls and the meningo scare are the primary reasons why no wage increase should be granted.

They are still recovering from the heavy losses they suffered, they said.

Earlier, the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) is asking for a R75 daily wage increase for workers in the private sector even as other groups also have filed their respective petitions for salary increase.

But representatives of the employers groups said that the burden of increasing the salaries of employees would further weakened the financial capability of business establishments that are still recovering from the menigo threat.

Anthony de Leon, general manager of Baguio Country Club (BCC), said that the club alone lost over R17 million in revenues at the height of the meningo scare.

He questioned a provision in Republic Act 6727 or the Wage Rationalization Act, which states that a company has to show a 20 percent impairment in its paidup capital before it could be exempted from complying with a wage-hike order.

He proposed that the RTWPB study the actual condition in Baguio City and the region, saying another round of wage increases would result in termination of employees.

Another representative of an employer suggested "to sectoralize" the proposed increase, saying the increase should not be given to everyone.

He added that the RTWPB should devise a scheme in which a wage hike should depend on the kind of service a company offers.

However, the labor sector said that it’s about time an increase in the R224 minimum wage is implemented, noting the continuing rise in the prices of basic commodities.

The labor leaders said it is but proper to close the gap between the take-home pay of the employees and the cost of living.

In a related development, mining workers petitioned for a R500 daily minimum wage to enable them to cope with the high prices of commodities.

Another problem hounding RTWPB is the slide in the peso’s purchasing power from R0.76 last year to only R0.72 this year, based on the latest statistics compiled by the National Statistics Office (NSO).

The present minimum wage in the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-SablanTuba (BLIST) area is P225 for the non-agricultural sector and R219 for the other municipalities of Benguet as well as the other provinces in the region.

For the agricultural sector, the daily minimum wage for BLIST is R212, and R206 for other provinces.

Retail or the service-sector firms with less than 10 employees should pay their workers a minimum of R205 per day in BLIST and R199 daily minimum wage for other provinces.

These rates include the cost of living allowance (CoLA).