WITH the unwritten promise of a review every three years, the Federal Government and organised labour have settled for a new national minimum wage of N70,000 monthly. This is an increase of 133 per cent over the former N30,000. It has been a long-drawn saga.
Ultimately, only a stable economy will make wages sustainable and meaningful. By law, there should be a wage review every five years. The last one was in 2019 under President Muhammadu Buhari.
That review hiked it to N30,000 from the N18,000 set under President Goodluck Jonathan. These reviews generated rancour and default. In Nigeria, the wages are disdainful.
With the naira depreciation, most workers are living in poverty. Compared to South Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Algeria, and Angola, Nigeria has the lowest, even at N70,000 monthly or about $44. Shortly after President Bola Tinubu cancelled petrol subsidies in May 2023 and prompted the CBN to float the naira, the urgency of another review became apparent.
Initially, labour proposed N615,000 monthly and later settled at N250,000. The tripartite committee of the government (federal and state), labour and the organised private sector pushed N62,000 after lengthy negotiations and a two-day labour strike. For all the parties concerned, this is a Pyrrhic victory.
Though some state governments indicated they would pay the new wage, many still sit on the fence. This is a bad signal. Many states are not financially viable with indications that some could go bankrupt when they st.