A bill requiring employers in the private sector to give their employees 14th month pay every year has been filed at the Senate.

Senate Bill No. 2 of Senate Majority Leader Vicente “Tito” Sotto III provides that all non-government rank and file employees should be entitled to 14 month pay aside from the regular 13th month pay they receive every year.

READ: Senate bill filed mandating employees’ 14th month pay

“The 13th month pay shall be paid not later than June 14th and the 14th month pay shall be paid not later than December 24th of every year provided however that the frequency of payment of this monetary benefit may be the subject of agreement between employer and employee or any recognized/collective bargaining agent of employees,” the bill said.

“The minimum amount of the 14th month pay shall not be les than 1/12 of the total basic salary earned by the employee within the calendar year,” it further said.

In filing the bill, Sotto recognized “the indispensable need to provide our Filipino laborers, both from the public and private sectors additional 14th month pay.”

He said the recent P10.00 increase in the minimum wage was “too small.”

“Wages have invisibly decreased due to the rise in prices of basic commodities. Improved business – earnings have not cascaded on its own,” the senator said.

“The 13th month pay is gobbled up by Christmas expenses. We need extra earnings in the middle of the year to help in school and medical expenses.”

“Health and education needs of the ordinary Filipino must be assisted by our government. This will make the maxim attributed to President Ramon Magsaysay become a reality: Those who have less in life should have more in law,” the senator added.

Sotto sought the immediate passage of the bill. RAM/rga

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