Average Salary in the Philippines (2026): Pay by Role and Region
The average monthly wage in the Philippines is PHP 21,544 (about $343) according to the Philippine Statistics Authority 2024 Occupational Wages Survey, with Metro Manila averaging PHP 29,310 and BPO customer service roles paying PHP 20,000 to 27,000 before benefits.
The average monthly wage of a full-time, time-rated worker in the Philippines is PHP 21,544, or about $343, according to the 2024 Occupational Wages Survey from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), released in November 2025. That figure is made up of PHP 20,309 in basic pay and PHP 1,235 in allowances. It is the most recent official number, and it is higher than the PHP 18,423 that many salary sites still quote from the 2022 survey.
For a company in the United States or the United Kingdom, the more useful question is what it costs to employ someone in the Philippines, not what the national average is. A customer service representative in a formal BPO setting earns roughly PHP 20,000 to 27,000 a month in base pay, and statutory contributions plus the mandatory 13th-month pay add about 22 percent on top. This guide walks through the official numbers, the regional minimum wages, what remote and BPO roles actually pay, and the full monthly cost of an employee.
Exchange rate
USD figures on this page use PHP 62.88 per dollar, the rate published by the Open Exchange Rates API on September 19, 2026. The peso has traded between roughly 56 and 63 to the dollar over the past three years, so a 10 percent swing in the USD cost of a Philippine hire is normal. Budget in pesos and convert at the time of payment.
The Official Numbers
The PSA runs the Occupational Wages Survey every two years. The 2024 round covered formal establishments employing 10 or more workers across all major industry groups, and it collected the basic pay and allowances of time-rated workers on a full-time basis. Three things follow from that scope.
First, the survey measures the formal sector. A large share of Filipino workers are self-employed, in family businesses, or in informal jobs that the survey does not touch, and their earnings are lower on average. The PHP 21,544 figure is closer to what a registered employer pays than to what the median Filipino earns.
Second, the number is a mean, not a median. A handful of high-paying occupations pull it up. The survey's highest-paid occupations were aircraft pilots at PHP 137,999 a month and air traffic safety electronics technicians at PHP 131,536, while the lowest were media announcers at PHP 9,500 and bus drivers at PHP 10,931, according to BusinessMirror's report on the release. The PSA does not publish a national median in the survey highlights, which is why third-party sites that quote a "median" of PHP 13,000 to 15,000 are estimating rather than citing.
Third, the survey is two years old by the time it is published. The 2024 data was released on November 25, 2025, and the next round will not appear until late 2027. Wages have moved since the reference period, so treat PHP 21,544 as a floor for formal-sector pay in 2026 rather than a current reading.
The most common discrepancy you will find online is the 2022 figure. The 2022 survey reported an average of PHP 18,423, and several employer-of-record sites, including Oyster's guide as of August 2026, still lead with that number. The 2024 survey is 16.9 percent higher. If a vendor quotes PHP 18,423, they have not updated since 2023.
Minimum Wage in the Philippines
There is no single national minimum wage. Seventeen Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Boards set daily rates for their regions, usually with separate figures for non-agriculture, agriculture, and small retail or service establishments. The National Wages and Productivity Commission (NWPC) publishes each region's current wage order.
Metro Manila (the National Capital Region, NCR) has the highest floor. Wage Order NCR-28 raises the non-agriculture rate to PHP 755 a day from September 26, 2026, up PHP 60 from the PHP 695 set under NCR-26. An earlier order, NCR-27, was approved in June 2026 with the same first tranche but was enjoined by a court and remains under litigation, which is why the board issued NCR-28 as a single-step increase. The details are compiled by SweldoPH from the published orders; the Department of Labor and Employment announcement is the primary source.
| Region | Non-agriculture daily rate | Wage order | Effective |
|---|---|---|---|
| NCR (Metro Manila) | PHP 755 (PHP 718 for agriculture and small retail) | NCR-28 | September 26, 2026 |
| Region IV-A (CALABARZON), extended metro area and component cities | PHP 600 | IVA-22 | Second tranche April 1, 2026 |
| Region VII (Central Visayas), Class A cities including Cebu | PHP 540 | ROVII-26 | October 4, 2025 |
| Region XI (Davao) | PHP 540 | RB XI-24 | Second tranche September 1, 2026 |
Sources: NWPC Region IV-A, NWPC Region VII, NWPC Region XI.
To convert a daily rate to a monthly salary, Philippine payroll uses a factor based on the number of paid days in the year. For an employee paid for all 313 working days, PHP 755 works out to PHP 19,693 a month (755 times 313 divided by 12), or about $313. That is below the PSA national average, which tells you that most formal-sector employers in Manila already pay above the minimum.
Salaries by Industry
The 2024 survey breaks down average monthly wage rates by industry. Information and communications, which includes most of the BPO and IT services sector, paid the highest average at more than double the national figure.
| Industry | Average monthly wage rate | USD equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Information and communications | PHP 43,676 | $695 |
| Professional, scientific and technical activities | PHP 36,096 | $574 |
| Electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply | PHP 35,188 | $560 |
| All industries | PHP 21,544 | $343 |
| Agriculture, forestry and fishing | PHP 14,615 | $232 |
Source: PSA 2024 Occupational Wages Survey, as reported by BusinessMirror.
For a foreign employer, the industry average that matters is information and communications at PHP 43,676, because that is the pool a remote support, technical, or back-office team draws from. It blends senior engineers with entry-level agents, so the role-level ranges below are a better budgeting guide.
Salaries by Region
The survey also reports regional averages. Metro Manila pays about 36 percent above the national average, and the poorest region, the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), pays about half of it.
| Region | Average monthly wage rate | USD equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| National Capital Region (Metro Manila) | PHP 29,310 | $466 |
| Region IV-A (CALABARZON) | PHP 19,711 | $313 |
| Region III (Central Luzon) | PHP 19,084 | $303 |
| BARMM | PHP 11,495 | $183 |
Source: PSA 2024 Occupational Wages Survey, as reported by BusinessMirror.
The regional spread is why BPO operators have expanded to Cebu, Davao, Clark, Iloilo, and Bacolod. For a fully remote team the location premium is smaller, because provincial candidates apply for Manila-rate jobs, but it has not disappeared.
What Remote and BPO Roles Pay
The official survey does not publish figures for the specific roles a foreign employer hires. The ranges below are market data from Talent.com's Philippines salary pages, which aggregate posted and reported salaries, accessed September 19, 2026. They are not official statistics. Annual figures are divided by 12; Talent.com's annual totals may include the 13th-month payment, so treat the monthly figures as approximate.
| Role | Typical monthly range (PHP) | Average (PHP) | Average (USD) | Sample |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Customer service representative | 20,500 to 27,100 | 21,500 | $342 | 10,000 salaries |
| Virtual assistant | 21,500 to 33,000 | 24,000 | $382 | 6,750 salaries |
| Accountant | 25,000 to 60,500 | 40,000 | $636 | 2,588 salaries |
| Software developer | 39,000 to 57,000 | 44,000 | $700 | 4,053 salaries |
| Team leader | 35,000 to 70,900 | 57,500 | $914 | 2,043 salaries |
A few observations from working with contact-center teams in the Philippines. Bilingual or technical support agents, night-shift agents supporting US hours, and agents with two or more years in a named account earn toward the top of the customer service range and often above it. Night differential is a legal requirement (10 percent extra for hours between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.), so a US-hours team costs more than the day-shift figures suggest. Virtual assistants hired directly by foreign companies, rather than through an agency, frequently negotiate in dollars and land in the $500 to $900 range, above the Talent.com average, because they are comparing against overseas rates rather than local ones.
What It Costs to Employ Someone in the Philippines
A Philippine employee's cost to the employer is the base salary plus three statutory contributions plus the 13th-month pay. There is no employer payroll tax beyond these.
| Cost | Employer rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| SSS (Social Security System) | 10 percent of the monthly salary credit, capped at PHP 35,000 | Rate rose to 15 percent total in January 2025, split 10 percent employer and 5 percent employee, per SSS Circular 2024-006 |
| Employees' Compensation | PHP 10 to 30 a month | Small fixed premium paid with SSS |
| PhilHealth | 2.5 percent of basic salary | 5 percent total split equally, on salaries between PHP 10,000 and 100,000 |
| Pag-IBIG (housing fund) | 2 percent, capped at PHP 200 a month | Cap applies above PHP 10,000 in monthly pay |
| 13th-month pay | One twelfth of basic salary earned in the year | Mandatory for rank-and-file employees, payable by December 24 |
Contribution rates were checked against the 2026 contribution tables compiled by KAMI Workforce and the SSS circular.
Here is the arithmetic for a customer service representative in Manila at PHP 25,000 a month, a realistic figure for an agent with a year of experience.
| Component | Monthly amount |
|---|---|
| Base salary | PHP 25,000 |
| SSS employer share (10 percent of PHP 25,000) | PHP 2,500 |
| Employees' Compensation | PHP 30 |
| PhilHealth employer share (2.5 percent) | PHP 625 |
| Pag-IBIG employer share (capped) | PHP 200 |
| 13th-month accrual (PHP 25,000 divided by 12) | PHP 2,083 |
| Total monthly employer cost | PHP 30,438 (about $484) |
The statutory contributions come to PHP 3,355, or 13.4 percent of base pay, and the 13th-month accrual adds another 8.3 percent, for a total on-cost of 21.8 percent. Because SSS is capped at a PHP 35,000 salary credit and Pag-IBIG at PHP 200, the percentage falls as salaries rise: at PHP 50,000 a month the statutory contributions are about 10 percent of pay.
Two things the table leaves out. Most BPO employers provide an HMO (private health plan) worth PHP 1,500 to 3,500 a month per employee, because PhilHealth coverage is thin and candidates expect it. And if you hire through an employer of record rather than your own entity, the provider fee of roughly $300 to $500 a month per employee is the largest single line after salary. The employer of record guide for the Philippines works through that option.
Salary Trends
Formal-sector wages rose 16.9 percent between the 2022 and 2024 surveys, from PHP 18,423 to PHP 21,544, which is roughly 8 percent a year. That outpaced inflation over the same period and reflects both minimum wage orders and competition for skilled workers in IT and BPO.
The 2026 picture is different. Headline inflation eased to 6.1 percent in August 2026, the fourth straight monthly decline but still well above the central bank's 2 to 4 percent target, and the January-to-August average was 5.2 percent, according to PSA data reported by Rappler. Wage boards responded with the largest round of increases in years: the NCR floor is up PHP 60, CALABARZON up PHP 75 over two tranches, and Davao up PHP 30. Expect merit increases in the BPO sector to run 5 to 8 percent for 2026 and salary expectations from candidates to be anchored on the new minimums.
How US and UK Companies Pay Workers in the Philippines
There are three ways to put a Filipino employee on payroll, and each changes the cost table above.
Employer of record (EOR). A local provider becomes the legal employer, runs payroll and statutory filings, and bills you a monthly fee. It is the fastest route for a first hire or a team under about twenty people. The Philippines EOR guide covers fees, providers, and a full cost example, and the EOR cost guide compares providers across countries.
Independent contractor. Common for virtual assistants and freelancers, and legal when the person genuinely runs their own business. Misclassification risk is real: a full-time worker on your schedule with your tools is an employee under Philippine law regardless of the contract label, and back pay for 13th month and contributions follows. Contractors also lose SSS, PhilHealth, and Pag-IBIG coverage, which is why experienced VAs increasingly ask for employment.
Local entity. Registering a Philippine corporation or a branch, plus a PEZA or BOI registration for tax incentives, makes sense above roughly fifty employees. It takes several months and needs local directors and accountants.
Whichever route you choose, the Philippines labor law guide covers working hours, night differential, leave, and termination rules, and the guide to work culture in Philippine CX teams covers what the cost tables cannot: how to keep the team you hire.
Tracking Time and Attendance for a Team in the Philippines
Most foreign employers pay Philippine staff for hours worked, and night differential and overtime both depend on accurate time records. HiveDesk tracks time automatically from a desktop app, captures periodic screenshots, and produces timesheets that a manager in another time zone can approve before payroll runs. It also handles scheduling, attendance, and leave for the same team, at $5 per user per month on a single plan. HiveDesk has been used by distributed teams since 2011. See the labor cost calculation guide for BPOs for how time data feeds cost-per-hour reporting.
Automatic time tracking, screenshots, scheduling and timesheets for distributed teams, $5 per user per month.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is US $500 a month a lot in the Philippines?
At PHP 62.88 to the dollar, $500 is PHP 31,440 a month, which is about 46 percent above the national average wage of PHP 21,544 and slightly above the Metro Manila average of PHP 29,310. It is a solid full-time salary for an entry or mid-level office worker outside Manila and a fair one inside it. It is not a senior or professional salary: accountants and developers in the Talent.com data average PHP 40,000 to 44,000.
What is a good salary in the Philippines?
For an individual in Manila, PHP 35,000 to 50,000 a month ($560 to $795) is comfortable, covering rent for a studio or shared apartment, transport, food, and some savings. A family of four generally needs PHP 70,000 or more. Outside the capital those thresholds drop by about a quarter.
Is $1,000 a month a lot in the Philippines?
Yes. $1,000 is about PHP 62,900, nearly three times the national average and above the average for the information and communications industry. It is what a team leader, senior developer, or experienced accountant earns.
What is the average salary in the Philippines in USD?
About $343 a month at September 2026 rates, based on the PSA's PHP 21,544 average. Metro Manila averages about $466. Because the peso has moved between 56 and 63 to the dollar in recent years, the USD figure changes even when the peso figure does not.
What is the minimum wage in the Philippines per month?
There is no national monthly minimum. In Metro Manila the daily rate of PHP 755 from September 26, 2026 works out to about PHP 19,693 a month for an employee paid for 313 days a year. Other regions are lower: PHP 600 in the CALABARZON metro area and PHP 540 in Cebu and Davao.
Sources
- PSA, Occupational Wages Survey (2024 round released November 25, 2025). The PSA site blocked automated access on September 19, 2026; figures were read from the PSA release as reported by BusinessMirror, November 26, 2025.
- PSA, Highlights of the 2022 Occupational Wages Survey, released September 22, 2023, as quoted by Outsource Accelerator.
- NWPC Region IV-A, Region VII, Region XI, accessed September 19, 2026.
- DOLE, NCR wage order announcement and SweldoPH NCR wage order summary, updated September 15, 2026.
- SSS Contribution Table and Grant Thornton note on 2025 rates.
- KAMI Workforce, 2026 contribution tables.
- Talent.com Philippines salary pages, accessed September 19, 2026.
- Rappler, August 2026 inflation, September 4, 2026.
- Open Exchange Rates API, September 19, 2026.
This page is part of HiveDesk's salary guides by country for companies hiring in BPO and remote-work destinations.