BPO to pay out P247B in salaries to workers this year—solon

8:40 pm | Friday, July 6th, 2012

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – A lawmaker expects the business process outsourcing (BPO) sector to pay out P247 billion in salaries to hundreds of thousands of its workers this year, consequently contributing to an increase in the country’s consumer spending.

House deputy majority leader Pasig Representative Roman Romulo said that with the projected industry revenues of roughly $13 billion, BPO companies were expected to disburse approximately $5.85 billion in salaries alone this year, spending “40 to 45 percent of their revenues to compensate their staff.”

“No matter how we look at it, P247 billion represents a huge amount of money being course through the economy every year,” he said, pointing out that the industry – encompassing contact center services, back offices, medical, legal and other data transcription, animation, software development, engineering design, and digital content – is driving consumer spending up – helping create a recurring demand for goods and services in the country.

He cited a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas survey which indicated that BPO workers on the average got P383,863 in annual compensation.

Last year, the BPO industry posted $11 billion in revenues on a labor force of 638,000. BPO firms are expected to create some $27 billion in annual revenues and provide jobs for some 1.3 million Filipinos by 2016.

For this year, the Business Processing Association of the Philippines said that the BPO the sector was looking to generate 126,000 more employment opportunities in the country and earn an added $2 billion.

The P247 billion worth of wages “is equal to around 14 percent of the national government’s P1.816 trillion spending program this year, and larger than the budgets of the top five departments,” said the lawmaker.

This year, the Department of Education is spending P238.8 billion; the Department of Public Works and Highways, P125.5 billion; the Department of National Defense, P107.9 billion; the Department of Interior and Local Government, P101.4 billion; and the Department of Agriculture, P54.1 billion.

According to Romulo, P247 billion is 53 percent higher than the Social Security System (SSS), Government Service Insurance System (GSIS), and Philippine Health Insurance Corporation’s (PhilHealth) paying out P161 billion in combined annual benefits to its members.

The SSS paid P76 billion worth of benefits to its members back in 2011 while the GSIS and PhilHealth paid P50 billion and P35 billion, respectively.

Recent Stories:

Complete stories on our Digital Edition newsstand for tablets, netbooks and mobile phones; 14-issue free trial. About to step out? Get breaking alerts on your mobile.phone. Text ON INQ BREAKING to 4467, for Globe, Smart and Sun subscribers in the Philippines.

Short URL: http://business.inquirer.net/?p=69461

Tags: bpo , Business , Business process outsourcing , Consumer Issues , Employment , Pasig Representative Roman Romulo , Salaries and Wages

2011Empoy1120

….WTF! Another ‘bulok’ politician. He basically saying that we should be happy that we have BPO jobs and be thankful about it. Didn’t he know that college graduates have no choice but to take these jobs since there’s no really a ‘career’ jobs to be found. This kind of politician is a credit grabber and presenting himself as if he have done tremendous effort for these BPO companies to relocate here in the Phils…. Imagine youself, as a college graduate, studied for years to have a degree and yet no job is available for you except these BPO jobs. Worst of this situation is, there’s no real experience you’ll acquire which you may use/refer to once there’s a job opening on your field of study. It even makes thing worst because college graduates are losing years of their opportunity to be on a OJT (on-the-job training) of their field of studies while being employed to these BPO jobs! result no career or real experience is being built up for these graduates, career disaster if you’ll ask me……….
Nic Legaspi

BPO workers get an aveage of P383,863 per year?
Wehhh!

muddygoose

~27k per month with 14mos of salaries per year, including comprehensive health insurance and benefits. Masyado bang mataas yan? I believe some BPO managers and team leads can easily make more than 40k. May mga BPO jobs pa at places like Accenture, IBM Solutions, and HP that pay very well.

Nic Legaspi

The bulk of the BPO workforce still consists of call center agents. I work at a BPO firm as an officer for back-office/consultancy operations, but based on my observations, the usual salary is around 15k, and the guaranteed payout per year is usually 13 months. The BPO jobs at those large corporations that you mentioned are the high-value back-office services, which is not the majority of jobs in the BPO sector. No unions represent the growing BPO sector. This industry has one of the highest attrition rates for employees.
delicacy 08

after graduation started working at BPO with starting salary of 17k, and a yearly increase + annual inflation adjustment, technically suport and yes receiving calls. roughly earning 24k now after 1 and half years, if you want to earn even better you can do OT’s, not an officer or TL, even have a friend earning 45k monthly.. its not impossible
muddygoose

I guess it’s not perfect, but this industry actually brings in much needed employment. It has a few externalities (little environment degradation, unlike manufacturing) and brings in a lot of skills, especially for those in software development or software-related services. There are also some niche skills that this industry is bringing in, enabling Filipinos to stand out — look at how many Filipinos are in the security field worldwide because of the Trend Micro and GFI offices.

I’m not sure if unionizing is a solution. It will probably cause investors to leave. If we want higher salaries and better benefits, we should focus on skills improvement so that we can offer more than our English skills and our great work ethic. We need more mathematicians, artists, designers, engineers, innovators, and managers–people who can move up in the corporate ladders of IBM, HP, Dell, Intel, and, who knows, Google. We are proud of our encoders and call center agents, but even they know that they are capable of much more than being patient conversationalists or fast typists.
Nic Legaspi

You are correct, but don’t get me wrong. I’m working as a consultant at a BPO myself. I just don’t believe the numbers the government is churning out with regards to salary, etc. I guess the government needs to address the proper allocation of resources when it comes to the skills they acquired in college. From what I’ve heard, some call centers have banned the hiring of nurses. This is not a good development and definitely not sustainable, as some people who work for call centers usually stay for a few months. It is only recently that the BPO industry is moving towards high-value services like consultancy, software development, etc, which is good since these jobs offer better job security, better pay, and a much professional working atmosphere. If this trend continues, then indeed the Philippines would be a good haven for BPO locators.
muddygoose

Thanks, Nic. I enjoyed the discussion. Like you, I am hoping for a new chapter or an evolution in our BPO industry. Not only do I want to see Filipinos getting jobs, I also want to see us actualize our full potential. I wish our BPO industry will be the start of a strong, knowledge-driven economy.

BPO to pay out P247B in salaries to workers this year—solon

News

Sports

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Business

Technology

Opinion

Global Nation