Low wages equal stressed-out Filipino workers.

Kamanggagawa Party-list Rep. Eli San Fernando offered this painfully simple logic in reaction to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2026 Report, which revealed that 50 percent of Filipino workers experienced stress “a lot of the day” in 2025.

San Fernando argued that the alarming mental health crisis gripping the local workforce was directly tied to the country's severe wage crisis. He reckoned that financial burden, not just heavy workloads, was driving the country's record-breaking stress levels.

The report crowns the Philippines with the highest level of workplace stress in Southeast Asia, doubling the regional average of 25 percent. It also goes against a downward trend seen in neighbors like Vietnam, where daily stress plummeted to a mere 13 percent.

"You cannot expect a happy, motivated workforce when you pay them sub-poverty, starvation wages," San Fernando, a member of the House minority bloc, said.

“Ang numero unong nagpapakulo sa dugo at nagpapasakit sa ulo ng ordinaryong manggagawa araw-araw ay ang katotohanan na kulang na kulang ang iniuuwi nilang sahod para mabuhay ang kanilang pamilya)," said the firebrand congressman.

(The number one thing that boils the blood and gives ordinary workers headaches every day is the fact that the wages they bring home are far too little to support their families.)

He underscored that workers' morale, productivity, and motivation were directly anchored to their compensation.

"Hindi yan nadadaan sa (Those cannot be solved by) resilience seminars, mental health tips, [or] company outings.”

San Fernando criticized corporate and government frameworks that isolate workplace stress as a purely psychological issue rather than a structural, economic problem.

“Overworked, underserved ng mga pampublikong serbisyo, overtaxed sa lahat ng direksyon, and most of all, severely underpaid. Apat na salot yan na pasan ng manggagawa kada pitong araw sa isang linggo,” the progressive solon explained.

(Overworked, underserved by public services, overtaxed in every direction, and most of all, severely underpaid. Those are four burdens carried by workers seven days a week.)

“Paano mo reresolbahin ang burnout kung ang isang empleyado, pagkatapos magkayod-kalabaw sa trabaho, ay magku-kwenta pa kung aabot ba sa susunod na cut-off ang barya-baryang umento ng regional wage boards?" he asked.

(How can you resolve burnout if an employee, after working like a beast of burden, still has to calculate whether the meager increase from regional wage boards will last until the next cutoff?)

San Fernando further said: "Financial-induced stress is a slow poison. We are trapping our people in high-intensity jobs while freezing the very resource they need to survive: a living wage.”

The party-list lawmaker noted that even as surveys like the Jobstreet Workplace Happiness Index claim Filipinos remain engaged or satisfied due to their sense of purpose, Gallup's findings prove that high engagement is merely a survival mechanism that coexists with crushing, sustained pressure.

With 55 percent of local employees thinking about leaving their careers and only 41 percent feeling in control of their anxiety, the status quo is completely unsustainable.

“The economic managers want to boast about macroeconomic upgrades, but our workers are drowning in actual, daily distress. Resolving this means prioritizing workers’ compensation," San Fernando concluded.