The Progressive Alliance of Capitol Employees has asked the Sanggunian Panlalawigan to support the proposed Salary Standardization IV for all government employees.

In a resolution dated May 13, PACE said there is a need for salary increases for those working in government to "uplift their living conditions", its press release said.

There have been proposals to enact the Salary Standardization Law IV to allow government to project and determine future wage increases, the press release said. It added that the first version of the SSL was enacted in 1989, the second in 1994, and SSL III in 2009 and the fourth and last instalment of SSL III was in 2012.

In 2006, state workers received a P1,000 across-the-board wage increase, and a 10-percent increase in 2007 and 2008 before the four-installment SSL III took effect in July 2009.

The DBM estimated in 2008 that the full implementation of SSL III would cost P128 billion a year but President Benigno Aquino III is not keen on the idea, a press release also said.

Aquino said there are 1.6 million members of the bureaucracy and increasing their salary would entail a huge amount of money.

Granting another hike may result in deficit and, in turn, affect the country’s credit ratings and they could not figure out at this time where to get the funds for the pay hike, Aquino was quoted as saying in the press release.*

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