How Much Is Too Much? Nothing Wrong To Ask For P60,000-Starting Salary, But…

Is it too little or too much?

Two days before the Philippines marked Labor Day on Saturday, May 1, a certain issue got social media users divided as a netizen aired his frustration over an Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU) fresh graduate who declined an entry level marketing associate position due to the starting salary offered.

According to the netizen, the offer was P37,000, which he deemed hefty for  a starting salary. But the ADMU graduate apparently turned it down, as the netizen said the prospective employee was expecting a starting salary of at least P60,000.

“I asked for her reason and she said that she expects at least 60k because of her educational background. I’M SPEECHLESS,” the Twitter user who goes by the username @DearKume posted on Thursday, April 29.

 In a follow-up tweet, @DearKume explained he did not meant to bash ADMU graduates, saying it’s a “thought-provoking situation.”

“…what kind of mindset do kids have these days? Are they simply out of touch with reality, or were they brought up to think they deserve such huge salaries right off the bat?” the netizen said.

The Twitter user pointed out that many people misinterpreted his post and that his offer was accepted by a graduate of the University of Santo Tomas. 

“The whole point was her reason for rejecting the offer. She said IT’S BECAUSE OF MY EDUCATIONAL BACKGROUND. She was a graduate of a 4-year course like all the other candidates. She basically said she deserves 60k because she’s from Ateneo,” @DearKume noted.

The tweet also spurred a discussion on whether the salary offer was too much for a starting position, or too little as a livable wage.

“This is too funny. Dun tayo sa real world, rookie (Let’s stick to the real world, rookie),” one netizen named Darwin Medina commented.

Meanwhile, another netizen saw it from another point of view. “For those who are invalidating the Atenean's standpoint just because you started with a lower salary ‘back then,’ this mentality is what hinders Filipino workers from getting better pay. Don't employees at least deserve compensation that can sustain 50k+/mo Manila cost of living?” the netizen asked.

A recent study released by meta-search website iPrice Group showed that Manila ranked third among six popular Southeast Asia cities with the most expensive cost of living and the lowest average salary.

The study found that the total estimated monthly cost of living in Manila reached about P50,800, taking into account every necessity such as rent, food, transportation and utilities, among others.

Without rent, the total living cost of living still reaches about P28,800 per month in Manila, the study showed.

Read more: Manila Among Most Expensive Cities To Live In Southeast Asia

‘Not surprising’

But why did one simple tweet about starting salaries become a heated debate among netizens? For sociologist and University of the Philippines (UP) instructor Athena Charanne “Ash” Presto, this was actually “not surprising,” considering that the Philippines is currently facing a pandemic along with the rest of the world.

“In the Philippines, most Filipinos lost their jobs, and a lot of Filipinos are finding it hard to cope with their employment to adjust to the work-from-home setting, to negotiate with their employers about taxing rights, about testing rights,” Presto told The Philippine STAR in a phone interview on Saturday, May 1.

“So this conversation is coming from a certain context. And from a sociological perspective, it's not surprising that this conversation already spawned a life of its own,” the sociologist said.

But what was the surprising part that had people talking, Presto emphasized, was the amount that the fresh graduate was offered.

“What's just really surprising about this incident is that the offer was actually really high, relatively in the Philippines, mataas talaga siya (it’s really high) as [a] starting rate. But also I want to highlight the fact the people's opinions are coming from very different places,” she underscored.

Aside from this, Presto said that from a sociological perspective, the discussion can be seen vis-à-vis other factors such as gender and social media.

“We are too focused on arguing whether that applicant was arrogant or not. May karapatan siyang tumanggi, (She was in the position to decline.) Of course yes, she's in the position to do so,” she said.

“And that doesn't make her arrogant, it just shows that we have different vulnerabilities when it comes to employment, and these vulnerabilities can be attributed to our financial safety nets, our social economic status, by our gender, even our profession, even the schools where you're coming from,” she added.

Meanwhile, for economist and Asian Institute of Management adjunct faculty member John Paolo Rivera, the issue of what a good starting salary is has been prevailing “since time immemorial.”

“The usual notion of asking salary is not only about livable wages but also about signaling effect, valuation of one’s work, and to some extent entitlement mentality,” Rivera told The STAR in an online exchange also on Saturday.

‘It still depends’

So is the P37,000-starting salary too little or too much? “It depends,” Rivera said.

“Industry-wise, and considering the situation we are in right now where most companies are downsizing to remain operationally viable, the [P37,000] may have been too much for an entry level,” he noted. “Applicant-wise, perhaps that is how he/she expected it to be. It may have been a mismatch of expectations. However, it still depends.”

Rivera expressed belief that the applicant’s demand or expectation was also “not totally wrong.”

“[The P60,000] might be how the fresh graduate valued her abilities, which is not totally wrong. Given a company's willingness to pay, expected wages will adjust until an equilibrium or agreement between company and applicant is reached,” the economist stressed.

Rivera also preferred to look at the discussion through a demand (employer) and supply (applicant) perspective.

“We need to understand that the demand side has certain valuation of a job description subject to the amount of resources they have and their willingness to pay," the economist said. “Supply side has this concept of ‘reservation wage’ – the minimum amount of wage a laborer would be willing to accept to supply labor services.” 

Is bargaining a privilege?

As the discussion raged on, writer Albert Pagunsan, who graduated from UP Los Baños in 2019, said he sympathized with the ADMU applicant.

He admitted that he also thought that after graduating on top of his class from a known university, he could “negotiate and get a higher salary.”

Pagunsan said what made him “uncomfortable” was the fact that many Filipinos see negotiating as a “privilege.”

Is it really? “Economically speaking, while the university where you graduated from influences your bargaining power, it is not everything,” Rivera stressed.

“Bottomline, it is still the value an applicant can contribute to a company. If this value is truly worth the needs of a company, it dilutes the bargaining power arising” from being from a certain school, Rivera said. “Economically, bargaining power is driven by your scarcity value. Is labor demand greater than or less than labor supply? Are you easily replaceable? Can I find someone else like you out there?”

Raphael Malenab, a human resource practitioner for a media company, also weighed in on the matter.

“It’s true that that exists. Some recruiters and some companies will scoff at bargaining based on where you went to school. Obviously this is wrong,” he told The STAR in an online exchange.

“Nobody should be deprived of the chance to ask for more or judged for doing so simply based on where they graduated. However, that view (only pertains) to the privilege of asking,” he added.

“It's a different conversation when it comes to successfully getting what you want because the school where you came from is a legitimate bargaining chip – for fresh (graduates) at least,” Malenab went on to say.

Malenab also emphasized that it takes awareness to notice of the biases of some recruiters when choosing applicants.

“Some of it may be because the recruiter experienced the same thing, or is not properly trained on the philosophy of equal employment opportunity,” he said. “If we go down the rabbit hole then we'll have to blame capitalism itself because you have to be able to pay for the talent required to do these things properly.”

But should jobseekers accept work from employers who promise to enhance their skills, but offer little pay? Presto answered in the negative, saying that it’s just a way for some companies to exploit their employees.

Presto said employers do not have the right to look at the skillset of job applicants and then tell them that they would “gain this experience" or enhance their abilities.

“My personal take and professional take on that is that pay your employees, period. Because every employer should contribute to the growth of the employee.”