PASAY CITY – The Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board-III (RTWPB-III) participated in a technical session organized by the National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) and economists from De La Salle University (DLSU) from 04 – 05 June 2026. The session aimed to approximate and simulate the effects of different wage adjustment levels on the country’s macroeconomic outcomes.

The DLSU economists, Marites M. Tingco, Justin Raymond Eloriaga, and Jem Marie M. Nario served as resource persons for the two-day activity, which focused on answering the central policy question: “What happens if the country implements a national wage floor in place of the current region-specific wage system?”

Their discussions were anchored on the findings of their published paper titled “Nationalizing the minimum wage: Can the Philippines take the toll?” released in December 2025. The sessions also included a tutorial on the General Algebraic Modeling System (GAMS), a programming language designed to solve large systems of equations embedded in the Regional Wage Model—a partial Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) model used to simulate various wage adjustments, depicting economic shocks and their impact on productivity, poverty levels, and displacement and unemployment rates across regions.

The model is a useful tool for RTWPBs during minimum wage reviews as it helps gauge the potentially drastic and regionally varied effects of wage adjustments, particularly a uniform wage floor, on production costs, labor demand, productivity, and poverty levels.

It also serves as a tool for RTWPBs to highlight the unintended serious consequences of hasty policy decisions, as opposed to data-driven approaches on wage determination.

Ultimately, RTWPB III’s participation in this activity underscores its active commitment to serving its stakeholders, with the Secretariat continually seeking ways to enhance the wage determination and review processes, anchored on the objective of ensuring fair and just remuneration to protect workers from unduly low pay while balancing the interests and productivity levels of MSMEs that help drive the country’s economy.