Minimum Wage: Labour insists on N200,000 or …

Against the backdrop of the promise made by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in his New Year address that his administration will implement a “national living wage” this year, the Nigeria Labour Congress has raised a team to negotiate with the government.

The subsisting minimum wage, negotiated in 2018, expires in April 2024.

Each agreed minimum wage has a five-year lifespan. Therefore, the lifespan of the current national minimum wage will soon be over. Tinubu had said in the address: “The economic aspirations and the material well-being of the poor, the most vulnerable and the working people shall not be neglected.

“It is in this spirit that we are going to implement a new national living wage for our industrious workers this New Year. It is not only good economics to do this, it is also a morally and politically correct thing to do.”

The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Comrade Joe Ajaero, in an interview with Vanguard highlights the indices that will be looked at before arriving at an acceptable figure for minimum wage, hinting that the next minimum wage may not be less than N200,000 if Labour has its way.

“I am sure you have read our New Year message. The government virtually reneged in all the agreements including the N35,000 (petrol subsidy palliative) wage award on which they paid only one month. They are going to start the year with the payment of the arrears. That is where we will start from; we have to start from where we stopped moving forward.

“I didn’t just say N200,000. I tried to figure out the value of $200 then. So, if you are looking at the constant variables from the point of view of two hundred dollars, you will discover that a dollar is around a thousand two hundred naira now. You have to adjust based on the prevailing circumstances.”