The beneficial impact of the new minimum-wage law was supposed to give instant relief to minimum-wage earners now struggling more than ever to make ends meet.

But a survey conducted recently by the audit and consultancy firm Punongbayan & Araullo dispelled all thoughts this was anything but true.

Lawyer Benedicta Du-Baladad, head of the tax advisory and compliance unit at the consultancy firm, said on Wednesday a sampling of wage data based on the new wage legislation shows that its supposed benefits proved more illusory than real.

The sampling intended to uncover if the social intent of the legislation would really provide quick relief to wage earners by putting more money in people’s pockets through larger allowable exemptions.

The law, Republic Act 9504, also made it clear that minimum-wage earners no longer have to pay tax at all.

Baladad said the sampling revealed the withholding-tax schedule drawn on the basis of the new law “hardly differs from the old schedule” at all. She told reporters its impact in terms of tax relief was “very nil, if at all.”

The fact that the law was interpreted to have become effective on July 7 this year made the illusory impact all the more pronounced, according to Baladad.

In this sense, because the law was designed as a social legislation, its beneficial impact is really “ampaw,” Baladad said, referring to a rice-based snack food which has more air or is hollow inside.

According to her, the supposed beneficial impact of the law could best be described as “delayed” in the sense that its full force could only be felt at the end of the year when its monthly impact is annualized.

“The sampling established that the social intent of the legislation, which was to give tax relief to the minimum-wage earners, was not realized,” Baladad said.

Earlier, the Departments of Finance and of Budget objected to extending the period of exempt earnings covered by the new law all the way to January 1 this year and fixed it on July 7 instead because doing so would have complicated things for both the employer and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).

The BIR cringed at the prospect of having to refund large amounts of taxes withheld from millions of minimum-wage earners and the administrative nightmare this would generate.