Equity, Not Competition: Teachers Push for ₱15,000 Pay Increase After Uniformed Personnel Boost

The newly approved multi-year salary hike for uniformed personnel has reignited long-standing calls from public school teachers for a substantial pay raise—particularly the demand for an across-the-board ₱15,000 increase. 

Teachers’ groups argue that while they support improved welfare for soldiers, police, and other uniformed services, the rapid approval of the MUP pay hike highlights a stark contrast: education sector workers have been waiting years for a comparable, meaningful salary adjustment. 

For teachers, the issue is not competition but equity. They emphasize that the responsibilities they carry—shaping national literacy, handling large class sizes, performing administrative duties, and maintaining classroom operations often at personal expense—justify an increase that goes beyond small, incremental adjustments. 

Thus, with the government demonstrating political will to raise the salaries of uniformed personnel, teachers’ organizations insist that now is the time to show the same urgency toward educators. The call for a ₱15,000 across-the-board raise is framed as necessary to keep pace with rising costs of living, prevent teacher burnout, strengthen the education workforce, and uphold the principle that those who nurture the nation’s children deserve dignified compensation.