WAGES

• Person


  An individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust, legal representatives, or any organized group of persons
• Employer


  Includes any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee and shall include the government and all its branches, subdivisions and instrumentalities, all government-owned or controlled corporations and institutions, as well as non-profit private institutions, or organizations
• Employee


  Includes any individual employed by an employer
• Regional minimum wages


  The minimum wage rates for agricultural and non-agricultural employees and workers in each and every region of the country shall be those prescribed by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards
• Agriculture


  Includes farming in all its branches and, among other things, includes cultivation and tillage of soil, dairying, the production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of any agricultural and horticultural commodities, the raising of livestock or poultry, and any practices performed by a farmer on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with such farming operations, but does not include the manufacturing or processing of sugar, coconuts, abaca, tobacco, pineapples or other farm products
• Nothing in this Book shall be construed to eliminate or in any way diminish supplements, or other employee benefits being enjoyed at the time of promulgation of this Code
• Employ


  Includes to suffer or permit to work
• Payment by results


  The Secretary of Labor and Employment shall regulate the payment of wages by results, including pakyao, piecework, and other non-time work, in order to ensure the payment of fair and reasonable wage rates, preferably through time and motion studies or in consultation with representatives of workers' and employers' organizations
• Wage


  The remuneration or earnings, however designated, capable of being expressed in terms of money, whether fixed or ascertained on a time, task, piece, or commission basis, or other method of calculating the same, which is payable by an employer to an employee under a written or unwritten contract of employment for work done or to be done, or for services rendered or to be rendered and includes the fair and reasonable value, as determined by the Secretary of Labor and Employment, of board, lodging, or other facilities customarily furnished by the employer to the employee. "Fair and reasonable value" shall not include any profit to the employer, or to any person affiliated with the employer
• This Title shall not apply to farm tenancy or leasehold, domestic service and persons working in their respective homes in needle work or in any cottage industry duly registered in accordance with law
• Payment of wages


  No employer shall pay the wages of an employee by means of promissory notes, vouchers, coupons, tokens, tickets, chits, or any object other than legal tender, even when expressly requested by the employee
• Payment of wages by check or money order

  Allowed when such manner of payment is customary on the date of effectivity of this Code, or is necessary because of special circumstances as specified in appropriate regulations to be issued by the Secretary of Labor and Employment or as stipulated in a collective bargaining agreement
• Time of payment of wages

  1. Wages shall be paid at least once every two (2) weeks or twice a month at intervals not exceeding sixteen (16) days

  2. If on account of force majeure or circumstances beyond the employer's control, payment of wages on or within the time herein provided cannot be made, the employer shall pay the wages immediately after such force majeure or circumstances have ceased

  3. No employer shall make payment with less frequency than once a month
• Payment of wages for employees engaged to perform a task which cannot be completed in two (2) weeks


  1. Payments are made at intervals not exceeding sixteen (16) days, in proportion to the amount of work completed

  2. Final settlement is made upon completion of the work
• Place of payment of wages

  Payment of wages shall be made at or near the place of undertaking, except as otherwise provided by such regulations as the Secretary of Labor and Employment may prescribe under conditions to ensure greater protection of wages
• Direct payment of wages


  Wages shall be paid directly to the workers to whom they are due, except in cases of force majeure rendering such payment impossible or under other special circumstances, or where the worker has died
• Employer enters into a contract with another person for the performance of the former's work

  The employees of the contractor and of the latter's subcontractor, if any, shall be paid in accordance with the provisions of this Code
• Contractor or subcontractor fails to pay the wages of his employees in accordance with this Code

  The employer shall be jointly and severally liable with his contractor or subcontractor to such employees to the extent of the work performed under the contract
• Labor-only contracting


  The person supplying workers to an employer does not have substantial capital or investment in the form of tools, equipment, machineries, work premises, among others, and the workers recruited and placed by such person are performing activities which are directly related to the principal business of such employer. In such cases, the person or intermediary shall be considered merely as an agent of the employer who shall be responsible to the workers in the same manner and extent as if the latter were directly employed by him.
• Person, partnership, association or corporation which, not being an employer, contracts with an independent contractor for the performance of any work, task, job or project

  The provisions of the immediately preceding article shall likewise apply
• Employer or indirect employer may require the contractor or subcontractor to furnish a bond


  Equal to the cost of labor under contract, on condition that the bond will answer for the wages due the employees should the contractor or subcontractor, as the case may be, fail to pay the same
• Solidary liability


  Every employer or indirect employer shall be held responsible with his contractor or subcontractor for any violation of any provision of this Code. For purposes of determining the extent of their civil liability under this Chapter, they shall be considered as direct employers.
• Worker preference in case of bankruptcy

  In the event of bankruptcy or liquidation of an employer's business, his workers shall enjoy first preference as regards their wages and other monetary claims, any provisions of law to the contrary notwithstanding. Such unpaid wages and monetary claims shall be paid in full before claims of the government and other creditors may be paid.
• Attorney's fees


  • In cases of unlawful withholding of wages, the culpable party may be assessed attorney's fees equivalent to ten percent of the amount of wages recovered
  • It shall be unlawful for any person to demand or accept, in any judicial or administrative proceedings for the recovery of wages, attorney's fees which exceed ten percent of the amount of wages recovered