A bill in the Senate seeks to raise the minimum extra pay for night work in the private sector, which has stayed at 10 percent for more than five decades.
At a glance
- Bill: Senate Bill No. 2585, authored by Senator Loren Legarda
- Proposal: minimum night shift differential of 20 percent for covered private sector workers, up from 10 percent
- Hours: each hour worked from 10:00 PM to 6:00 AM
- Protected: higher rates already set by a collective bargaining agreement, contract, company policy or practice, or other legal arrangement
Senator Loren Legarda announced on her official Facebook page that she is pushing Senate Bill No. 2585. If passed, the measure would increase the minimum night shift differential for covered private sector workers to 20 percent for each hour worked between 10:00 PM and 6:00 AM.
Why she filed it
Legarda said the 10 percent rate has been unchanged for more than 50 years, while the cost of goods, daily expenses and the problems workers face have all shifted. The graphics in her post put it this way: the law dates to 1974, and it is now 2026.
"The sleeplessness, fatigue and sacrifice of those who work at night deserve fairer compensation," Legarda said in a post translated here from Filipino. One of the slides in her post carries a line attributed to her: while most people sleep, there are Filipino workers on the job, and their pay should keep pace with their hard work and recognize the hours, fatigue and sacrifice of night work.
The cost of working at night
The post lists what night work brings with it: fatigue, effects on health, difficulty getting to and from work, and less time for family and loved ones. In its words, the sacrifice of night shift workers does not stop when their shift ends.
Protection for higher rates
Employees who already get a higher night shift differential would not see it lowered. The post names four sources of such rates that would be protected: a collective bargaining agreement, an employment contract, a company policy or practice, and any other legal arrangement.
The measure
SB 2585 is an act amending Article 86 of Presidential Decree No. 442, the Labor Code of the Philippines, to increase the night shift differential. The post does not state the bill's current status in the Senate. Credit: Office of Senator Loren Legarda (Facebook post, November 11, 2026).