Labor Policies and Philippine Companies: Analysis of Survey Opinions

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This paper analyzes the responses from a survey of Philippine companies concerning labor market policies, such as minimum wage-setting process, hiring and firing practices, training, and holidays. These policies have gained wide acceptance as a means of protecting the welfare of workers. But one of the features of the Philippine economy is the massive unemployment that has persisted for a long time.Specific characteristics associated with the respondent firms help to isolate important findings in their opinions about the country`s labor policies. Responses to each policy issue vis-a-vis certain criteria around which operating enterprises were grouped yielded some important conclusions. The firms were either recipient or nonrecipient of investment incentives; export- or domestic market-oriented; owned by nationals or by foreigners; young or old; and small or large based on size of labor employment. Although the policy implications of the findings are not discussed in this paper, some conclusions appear evident. Among others, companies are adversely affected by certain policies that they complain about.