Wage Order NCR-28: How DOLE Delivered the ₱60 NCR Wage Hike Despite a Court Injunction

Wage Order NCR-27 was supposed to raise the NCR minimum wage by ₱60 starting July 25, 2026. A Pasig court injunction stopped that. So the RTWPB-NCR issued Wage Order NCR-28, a second order carrying the same ₱60, one the injunction doesn’t reach. DOLE confirmed its publication late last week: effective September 26, 2026, the NCR minimum wage rises to ₱755.

If you run payroll in Metro Manila, the legal back-and-forth matters less than the date on your calendar. Here is exactly how the two orders relate, what changed on paper, and what to update before September 26.

Why Two Orders for One ₱60 Increase

• NCR-27 planned a two-tranche hike: ₱60 first, ₱25 more later.
• A Pasig RTC preliminary injunction has blocked that first tranche since August, and the case is still pending.
• DOLE Secretary Francis Tolentino said the board issued NCR-28 to get income to workers while the litigation continues.
• Because NCR-28 is a separately issued order, the injunction against NCR-27 does not apply to it.

In practical terms, there are now two NCR wage orders on the books at once. NCR-27 remains legally frozen. NCR-28 is live, published, and enforceable starting September 26.

What Changed Under Wage Order NCR-28

Wage Order No. NCR-28 was issued by the Regional Tripartite Wages and Productivity Board–National Capital Region (RTWPB-NCR) under the authority of Republic Act No. 6727, the Wage Rationalization Act. It grants a one-time ₱60 daily increase, effective September 26, 2026.

NCR-28 delivers the same ₱60 as NCR-27’s frozen first tranche, but as its own instrument with its own effective date. The practical answer for your payroll system: as of September 26, 2026, the operative minimum wage in NCR is ₱755.

What It Means for Your Business

The ₱60 increase does more than lift the wage floor. It reaches into every calculation that starts from the daily basic wage.

For labor-intensive brick-and-mortar SMEs in F&B, retail, and logistics, the ₱60 increase flows into:

• Overtime pay
• Night shift differential
• Holiday and premium pay
• 13th-month accrual

It also affects wage distortion. If a supervisor earns ₱760 a day specifically because that sits comfortably above the ₱695 floor, the new ₱755 minimum nearly closes that gap. Employers are required to address wage distortion through negotiation once it appears, not leave it unresolved.

For subsidiaries of international groups running NCR payroll, the immediate task is narrower but still requires action: confirm which employees fall under the ₱755 rate versus the ₱718 rate for smaller covered establishments, and update local payroll inputs feeding into group reporting.

One point worth stating plainly: NCR-28 is prospective, effective September 26, 2026. There is no back pay owed to July 25, 2026, NCR-27’s original effectivity date. The two orders are separate instruments, and NCR-28 does not retroactively cover the period NCR-27 was frozen.

What to Do Before September 26

1. Update your payroll tables to ₱755 for non-agriculture workers and ₱718 for covered small establishments, effective September 26, 2026.
2. Recalculate overtime, night differential, holiday pay, and 13th-month accrual using the new basic wage.
3. Check for wage distortion among employees earning just above the old ₱695 floor, and flag any cases for review.
4. Brief your payroll and HR teams now, not on the effective date, so the new rate is applied from the first payroll cycle after September 26.

Keeping NCR Payroll Steady Through a Moving Wage Picture

Wage orders rarely arrive in isolation, and this one arrives with an added layer: two orders covering the same ₱60, one frozen and one live. Getting the effective date, the covered categories, and the distortion adjustments right the first time matters more than usual here, because a payroll correction after the fact costs more than the original setup would have.

We help NCR employers stay ahead of exactly this kind of moving regulatory picture, from applying the correct rate on day one to catching wage distortion before it becomes a dispute. If you want a second set of eyes on how NCR-28 applies to your specific payroll, our expert payroll services can walk through your numbers with you.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Wage Order NCR-28 replace Wage Order NCR-27?
Not exactly. NCR-27 remains legally frozen by the Pasig RTC injunction and technically still exists as a pending order. NCR-28 is a separate instrument issued to deliver the same ₱60 amount while the NCR-27 case is litigated.

If the NCR-27 injunction is later lifted, do the two increases stack?
This is unresolved. DOLE has stated the NCR-28 increase is not meant as a deduction from NCR-27’s ₱85, but how the two orders would interact if the injunction is lifted has not been clarified in public guidance. We are monitoring this and will update if DOLE or the NWPC issues clarification.

Is Wage Order NCR-28 itself at risk of a similar legal challenge?
No court petition against NCR-28 specifically has been filed as of this publication. But its issuance is already contested outside the courts: at the same House budget hearing where NCR-28 was disclosed, at least one lawmaker objected to issuing a new order while NCR-27 remains unresolved, and labor groups have said they intend to keep pushing for the full ₱85 under NCR-27 rather than treat NCR-28 as a substitute. NCR-28’s separate issuance keeps it outside the scope of the existing NCR-27 injunction, but the underlying disagreement over whether the wage board should have issued it at all is very much live.

What if we already applied the ₱60 increase under NCR-27 before it was enjoined?
If you already moved employees to ₱755, you are already at the correct rate under NCR-28. No further adjustment is needed on the amount, though it is worth confirming your payroll records now reference NCR-28 as the governing order rather than the frozen NCR-27.