Text of the provision
Art. 97. Definitions. As used in this Title: "Person" means an individual, partnership, association, corporation, business trust, legal representatives, or any organized group of persons. "Employer" includes any person acting directly or indirectly in the interest of an employer in relation to an employee and shall include the government and all its branches, subdivisions and instrumentalities, all government-owned or controlled corporations and institutions, as well as non-profit private institutions, or organizations. "Employee" includes any individual employed by an employer. "Agriculture" includes farming in all its branches and, among other things, includes cultivation and tillage of soil, dairying, the production, cultivation, growing and harvesting of any agricultural and horticultural commodities, the raising of livestock or poultry, and any practices performed by a farmer on a farm as an incident to or in conjunction with such farming operations, but does not include the manufacturing or processing of sugar, coconuts, abaca, tobacco, pineapples or other farm products. "Employ" includes to suffer or permit to work. "Wage" paid to any employee shall mean the remuneration or earnings, however designated, capable of being expressed in terms of money, whether fixed or ascertained on a time, task, piece, or commission basis, or other method of calculating the same, which is payable by an employer to an employee under a written or unwritten contract of employment for work done or to be done, or for services rendered or to be rendered and includes the fair and reasonable value, as determined by the Secretary of Labor and Employment, of board, lodging, or other facilities customarily furnished by the employer to the employee. "Fair and reasonable value" shall not include any profit to the employer, or to any person affiliated with the employer.
Labor Code of the Philippines, Presidential Decree No. 442, as amended. Reproduced in full from the official enactment and verified against the LawPhil and ChanRobles renderings.
What this article means
This article defines the words used in the Title on wages — person, employer (anyone acting directly or indirectly in an employer’s interest, including government branches, government-owned corporations and non-profit institutions), employee, agriculture, and employ (to suffer or permit to work). Wage means remuneration however designated that can be expressed in money — fixed on a time, task, piece or commission basis — including the fair and reasonable value of board, lodging or other facilities customarily furnished by the employer, and that value must not include any profit to the employer.
Questions about this provision
- Are sales commissions considered wages that my employer is legally bound to pay?
- Do free board and lodging given by my employer count as part of my wage?
Related provisions
- Article 95 — Service Incentive Leave.
- Article 100 — No Diminution Of Benefits.
A note on article numbers. The articles of the Labor Code have been administratively renumbered, so the same provision is often cited under a different number. Supreme Court decisions write both, in the form “Article 297 [282]” — the new number first, the original in brackets. The text on this page is published under its original number, which is the numbering both source texts use. When citing, check which numbering your source follows.
Cases interpreting this article
- Authorities on this article will be added here as each is verified against primary sources.