AIRCRAFT pilots, software developers, and mathematicians were among the top-paying jobs in 2022, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed.
In the 2022 Occupational Wages Survey by the PSA, aircraft pilots and related professionals had the highest average monthly wage at P135,363, which was twice as much as the top-paying jobs in 2020, held by mathematicians, actuaries, and statisticians at P63,368.
The OWS focuses on establishments with a workforce of at least 20 employees to track wage rates of benchmark occupations (including accounting and bookkeeping clerks and unskilled workers) and up to 11 different monitored occupations from each of the preselected 55 out of the 71 industries.
The rest of the top five high-paying occupations were software developers (P70,595), mathematicians and actuaries (P69,654), production supervisors and general foremen (P63,017), and application programmers (P58,643).
In the industry level, four occupations that made it into the top 10 were engaged in the industry of insurances, reinsurance, and pensions (except compulsory social security). This included mathematicians and actuaries, applications programmers, statisticians, and accountants.
The healthcare industry was also recognized in the 2022 survey as healthcare workers, specifically specialist medical practitioners and medical doctors/generalist medical practitioners, which were not on the last OWS high-paying job list, are now positioned at ranks six and eight, respectively.
The following are the top six to 10 highest-paying occupations: specialist medical practitioners (P57,476), statisticians (P51,607), medical doctor/generalist medical practitioners (P51,251), geologists (P49,059), and accountants (P48,982).
As for benchmark occupations (jobs that are common and are often near or at the bottom of the wage scale) across the regions, the highest recorded average monthly wage rate was in the National Capital Region at P24,530. This was followed by Region III at P20,029 and Central Visayas at P18,989.
Across the 193 monitored occupations, the overall average monthly wage rate saw an increase of 11.7% to P18,423 in 2022 from P16,486 in 2020. This marked a turnaround from the contraction of almost 10% in 2020.
Similarly, the median monthly basic pay across all industries inched up by 6.9% to P13,588 in 2022 from P12,753 in 2020.
The highest median monthly basic pay was recorded in the electricity, gas, steam, and air conditioning supply industry, reaching up to P29,928 in 2022 from P27,253 in 2020, recording a growth of 6.9%.
The leading percent growth in median monthly basic pay was seen in workers in mining and quarrying, with a 21.5% growth, reaching P16,132 in 2022 from P13,272 in 2020. — Andrea C. Abestano