While the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) is laudable in using its Facebook Page for informing workers and Filipinos about labor laws, it is condemnable for leaving out workers’ rights in its publicity materials.

In its July 24, 2025 post, the DOLE quotes Secretary Bienvenido Laguesma in saying that the mininum wage is for entry-level workers and serves as a “floor protection” for the country’s workers. In the post, Laguesma also said that workers who are skilled or are unionized receive higher wages.

Laguesma is silent about the fact that the country’s minimum wage should be a living wage. No less than the country’s 1987 Constitution guarantees workers the right to “a living wage” and recognizes “the right of labor to its just share in the fruits of production” even as it also recognizes “the right of enterprises to reasonable returns on investments, and to expansion and growth.”

After a P50 increase in June, the minimum wage in Metro Manila, the highest in the country, now stands at PhP 695. This is just 57% of the family living wage computed by independent think-tank Ibon Foundation, which stands at PhP 1,217. It should be recalled that Ibon uses a methodology that was previously used, and subsequently abandoned, by the government.

Laguesma confines discussions of workers’ wages to issues of higher or lower. What matters to Filipino workers is whether their wages enable them to live decently or not. This should be addressed by the government and not enable interpretations that entry-level workers or minimum wage earners are not entitled to a decent standard of living.

The minimum wage cannot genuinely be a “floor protection” if it does not guarantee a decent standard of living for workers and their families. The government should strive towards making workers’ right to a living wage a minimum, not a maximum, standard.

Laguesma also repeats the old canard that places the burden of receiving higher wages to workers themselves, either by improving their skills or organizing a union. The implication is that the responsibility of enjoying a decent standard of living lies on workers themselves, not on the government.

Workers have been trying to improve their lot, but are hindered by various factors. They are trying to improve their skills through various kinds of education, but prohibitive costs prevent many from accessing these. They are trying to form unions, but employers retrench them from work when they try to, while the government watches and sits on its hands.

Beyond workers’ efforts, however, it is the government’s responsibility to ensure a decent standard of living for its people. No one who is working should suffer from hunger or lack of opportunities. The minimum wage, to be truly a floor protection, should be a living wage.