There is a proposal to hike the minimum wage of Kasambahays or household workers nationwide to P6, 000 a month, says Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III on Thursday, December 17, 2020.

“[Having] housemaids, or kasambahays, is a luxury,” Bello said during the labor department’s year-end press conference. “So why would you cheap out on wages? The minimum wage should be P6,000 nationwide.”

“If you can’t give out P6,000, don’t get a housemaid. You clean your own house, you clean your own car, you bathe your own pets,” he added.

A P5,000 a month minimum wage for domestic workers in Metro Manila but there are low as P 2, 000 for municipalities in the Davao Region.

Bello said a P2,000 to P3,000 salary for household workers is “very meager.” “You won’t even be able to buy a cell phone using that money,” he said.

Republic Act No. 10361, or the Domestic Workers Act, provides that the regional tripartite and productivity wage boards should periodically adjust the minimum wage rates of domestic workers.

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