This philosophy of wage setting was the result of foreign advice on the minimum wage in 1951. Most countries in East Asia whose success in economic development has been historically astounding – starting with Japan, South Korea, Taiwan – emphasized investment policies and resisted minimum wage legislation. More recent success stories of development like Thailand, Indonesia, and Vietnam have adopted minimum wages, but their minimum wage levels have been much lower than the Philippine minimum wage in dollar equivalents. Wage-setting in situations where no government mandated minimum levels are interfering are based on productivity of labor. (See: Crossroads, “Making labor policies modern and flexible,” PhilStar, April 14, 2021 and May 12, 2021).

Source: Philippine Star March 07, 2023 23:37 UTC