B. Wages (See also RA 6727 and 8188)

WAGES

Wages 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;
• INCLUDES, the fair and reasonable value, as determined by the DOLE Secretary, of board, lodging, or other facilities customarily furnished by the employer to the employee. (Labor Code, Art. 97)

"Fair and reasonable value" shall not include any profit to the employer, or to any person affiliated with the employer. (Id.)

Supplements

The benefit or privilege given to the employee which constitutes an extra remuneration over and above his basic or ordinary earning or wage, is supplement. Thus, free meals supplied by the ship operator to crew members, out of necessity, cannot be considered as facilities but supplements which could not be reduced having been given not as part of wages but as a necessary matter in the maintenance of the health and efficiency of the crew personnel during the voyage. (States Marine Corporation and Royal Line, Inc. v. Cebu Seamen’s Association, Inc., G.R. No. L-12444, 1963).

Criterion: In determining whether a privilege is a facility, the criterion is not so much its kind but its PURPOSE (Millares v NLRC & PICOP, G.R. no. 122827, 1999)