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Minimum wage vis-a-vis living wage: Senate Majority Leader Joel Villanueva, during the Finance Subcommittee G hearing on the proposed P39.596 billion budget of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) and its attached agencies for 2024 on Thursday, Aug. 31, 2023, urges DOLE to thoroughly study how to achieve living wage which, he said, is way below the minimum wage prescribed by the agency. Villanueva questioned how the DOLE determine the minimum wage and if the agency consider living wage as a basis for a family to live a decent life. “I would just like to point out that despite the fact that we are shooting for the living wage with which is the most practical and perhaps fair judgment in determining the minimum wage, we're not able to achieve this,” Villanueva said. “Time and time again, we have been shooting for the stars and we know that this is the right thing to do. But unfortunately, for so many reasons, we cannot achieve the living wage,” he said. National Wages Productivity Commission Executive Director Maria Criselda Sy explained that the criteria for minimum wage determination is the demand for a living wage but it doesn't necessarily equate the minimum wage with the living wage.(Bibo Nueva España/Senate PRIB)