Wages In Philippines

[Dave Hounddriver]

I only wish there was some type of chart telling us what the average working people here earn daily.

What a great idea. Lets start a chart and add to it to share our knowledge of people we know in different professions and how much they get paid. It would be nice if posters were fairly sure of the amounts when they post as there are already a lot of rumors and false info. The prices I am mentioning are valid in Cebu.1) A girl who works in a profession like Mitsumi in Danao will make about 8K pesos a month plus overtime if available.2) A senior police officer with 20 years in will make over 30K pesos per month plus anything they don't talk about.3) A live in maid will make anywhere from 1,500 pesos to 8K a month depending on who they are working for, their experience and the length of time they have been there. (In the two instances I know of where maids were paid 6 to 8K per month, one employer found that made for a great maid and the other found it was not worth it and the maid quit anyway.)4) A carpenter or welder or electrician will make an average 400 pesos per day when working. Their helpers will make about half what they make or less when jobs are hard to find.Who will add to this list?

[Mr Lee]

HERE is a chart I found for 2001 which lists the salaries back then for many types of jobs. Anyone have anything more current?

[Dave Hounddriver]

While published charts have their place, I was hoping this thread would be more 'boots on the ground'. If someone looked at a chart to estimate how much money I made in my old job they would be WAY off the mark and I imagine many of us are in that situation.It seems more helpful, (to me anyway), to get an idea on what real people, known to us, are actually getting paid. For example, an early retired California high school teacher moved here and inquired what he would get for pay if he wanted to work at the Cebu International School. He was offered about 40K pesos a year and figured they may go as high as 50K.Perhaps this thread is not as useful as I first imagined because I can picture such a huge wage disparity depending on location, experience, family background and other factors.

[Mr Lee]

While published charts have their place, I was hoping this thread would be more 'boots on the ground'. If someone looked at a chart to estimate how much money I made in my old job they would be WAY off the mark and I imagine many of us are in that situation.It seems more helpful, (to me anyway), to get an idea on what real people, known to us, are actually getting paid. For example, an early retired California high school teacher moved here and inquired what he would get for pay if he wanted to work at the Cebu International School. He was offered about 40K pesos a year and figured they may go as high as 50K.Perhaps this thread is not as useful as I first imagined because I can picture such a huge wage disparity depending on location, experience, family background and other factors.

I meant to get back to this sooner since I have been researching actual salaries. Daily visiting maids, seem to get paid from p250 and up. Security guards get about p7000 a month, not much when you consider they work 6 to 7 days a week and 12 hour shifts. Some of the guards do make more money by working 24 hours straight without sleep, sure seems like a hard way to make a living, yet I did the same thing in my earlier and much younger years, but made much more money than that at the jobs I was working, even though it was 40 years ago and salaries were low back then in the US. Teachers salaries vary depending on if they work for private schools or public schools but it seems about p20,000 and up may be a basic average. Sales clerks apparently make about p6,000 a month and work long shifts and 6 days a week Ladies who do legal no happy ending massages seem to get and average of p400 a day on days where they work the whole day. I was told that they get paid per person, so the more they massage, the more they end up making but the lady would not be specific. The one thing I got out of asking questions was, that I found out that the govt does not enforce the minimum wage laws here and if anyone on the lower plain complains, they end up losing their jobs and get no satisfaction from the govt. So with workers salaries so low, I guess it is the store owners reaping all the profits since items sold are more here than the same item can often be bought back in the states.