THE MONTHLY wages of the highest-paid technicians and professionals doubled over the past two years, making them the best-rewarded among major occupations in the country, according to the Philippine Statistics Authority.
Results of PSA’s 2014 Occupational Wages Survey (OWS) showed that technicians and associate professionals were earning as much as P156,823 a month while professionals ring up some P101,471 a month.
For both occupations, the lowest paid received monthly wages of P9,954 and P10,560, respectively.
In the previous survey, held in 2012, salaries for technicians ranged P9,359 to P74,989 a month while those for professionals ranged P10,541-P55,264.
The survey—meant to help create data that may be useful for wage and salary administration and wage determination in collective bargaining negotiations— covered 8,399 establishments that employ at least 20 workers.
The PSA compared wage rates of 188 occupations across 50 pre-determined industry groups.
Other major occupations studied were those held by supervisors; clerks; service workers and shop sales workers; farmers, forestry workers and fishermen; craft and related trades workers; plant and machine operators and assemblers, as well as elementary occupations other than those of unskilled workers.
“The 2014 survey results showed that wage ratios of major occupations ranged from 1.8 (farmers, forestry workers and fishermen) to as high as 15.8 (technicians and associate professionals),” the PSA said.
The agency explained that the 15.8 ratio meant that the highest wage rate in the group [in the job type] was almost 16 times the lowest wage rate.