MANILA, Philippines — Rep. Michael Defensor (Anakalusugan) on Sunday urged the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) to set a monthly minimum pay of P32,053 or higher for nurse practitioners in the private sector.
“The DOLE – through the regional tripartite wages and productivity boards – is fully empowered to fix the minimum pay of all workers along industry lines or levels, including nurses in private hospitals, clinics, diagnostic centers and similar settings,” Defensor said.
President Rodrigo Duterte earlier signed into law a measure that increased by a weighted average of 23.24 percent the salaries of some 1.4 million civilian government personnel, including nurses employed by the Department of Health, over the next four years.
Under the new Salary Standardization Law, or Republic Act 11466, the entry-level pay of government nurses was bumped up to P32,053 effective Jan. 1, 2020.
The same starting pay will go up to P33,575 on Jan. 1, 2021; P35,097 on Jan. 1, 2022; and P36,619 on Jan. 1, 2023.
“We have to encourage new nursing graduates to practice their profession if we want all our hospitals – both public and private – to have a stable supply of nursing staff in the years ahead. And assuring them greater pay will help,” Defensor, House health committee vice chairperson, said.
“A considerable number of new nursing graduates that have not left the country are opting out of their profession, and are instead pursuing more gainful careers elsewhere, such as in real estate and insurance sales,” Defensor pointed out. (Stacy Ang/JGo/Currentph.com)
