THE average monthly income of technicians and associate professionals went up in 2014, according to data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA).
In 2014 the average earnings of technicians and associate professionals ranged from P9,954 to P156,823 a month. This means the lowest paid among these workers earned almost 16 times less than the highest paid workers in the category.
This indicated a wider wage difference compared to 2012, when the same workers earned an average of P9,359 to P74,989 a month. The lowest paid worker earned eight times less than the highest paid employee in this category.
“The 15.8 ratio means that the highest wage rate in the group is almost 16 times its lowest wage rate. This is the highest ratio recorded in the OWS [Occupational Wages Survey] through the years. It implies wide disparities in wage rates in this occupation group,” the PSA said.
Compared to unskilled workers, the lowest paid technicians and associate professionals now earn almost double, or 1.6 times the amount an unskilled worker earned in a month.
Compared to 2012, the 2014 wage ratios between the unskilled and various occupations hardly changed.
However, elementary occupations, such as janitors and messengers, recorded a lower ratio of 1.2 from 1.7 in 2012.
The professionals (1.7) and farmers, forestry workers and fishermen (1.0) also posted similar wage ratios for both years.
“Likewise, in 2014, there were very minimal wage differentials noted between the lowest wage rates of unskilled workers and lowest paid workers in major occupation groups,” the PSA said.
The ratios ranged from 1 for farmers, forestry workers and fishermen, who received a monthly income of P6,290, almost the same as the P6,118 given to unskilled workers.
The OWS requires the generation of critical and essential data for decision-making of the government and the private sector.
The data “average monthly occupational wage rates of selected occupations” is among those listed by the Philippine government under the Special Data Dissemination Standard (SDDS) of the International Monetary Fund.
The SDDS serves as reference to member-countries in the dissemination of economic and financial data to the public.
The 2014 OWS covered 8,399 agricultural and nonagricultural establishments employing at least 20 workers, wherein wage rates of 188 occupations across 50 pre-determined industry groups were collected.
It also provided the median monthly basic pay and allowances in selected industry groups. The survey’s reference period was July 2014.