Tinubu Government Proposes N54,000 Minimum Wage, Organised Labour Insists On N615,000

The organised labour on Tuesday rejected the N54,000 newly presented by the Nigerian Government as the new minimum wage.

 

This was disclosed by the Nigeria Labour Congress spokesperson, Mr Benson Upah, during a telephone conversation with SaharaReporters on Tuesday.

Mr Upah said the new proposal was submitted by the government team today (Tuesday) but that it was immediately rejected by the organised labour comprising the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC).

 

“They proposed it today but we rejected it. We are still insisting on N615,000. We can’t accept the N54,000 they proposed,” he told SaharaReporters.

SaharaReporters had reported how organised labour rejected the initial proposal of N48,000 made by the government last Wednesday.

The organised labour said it decided to walk out of the negotiation process after the government offered to pay N48,000 as the new national minimum wage, without providing any substantial data to support the offer.

The organised labour had demanded N615,000 as the new minimum wage, noting that the demand could go higher if the inflation rate continued to rise.

 

It had given the government till May 31 to conclude negotiations on the new living wage.

Many Nigerians on the social media platform, X, had also tackled President Bola Tinubu and his government for proposing N48,000 as the new national minimum wage.

An X user, Hidima said any minimum wage less than ₦150,000 is enslavement.

He wrote: “This tomato today in Warri goes for ₦7000, the pepper is also ₦7000, the other red pepper is ₦6000 and each tuber of yam there goes for ₦3,000 each. A kilo of meat (beef) is ₦7,500 & a kilo of chicken is ₦7000. The ordinary worker (public of private) will take a commercial vehicle, or if he or she has a vehicle, will buy fuel. They’d save something for children school fees, a portion of rent, other food stuff, even a bag of Garri today I learnt is ₦65,000. Dear @NGRPresident, let the poor breath.”

 

“If not for the selfishness of our leaders, this issue is as simple as ABC. Let’s calculate it based on the dollar exchange rate and see, when the Minimum W was approved, the exchange rate was around N300 and now it’s around N1,600. So 30k /N300 = $100 And $100* N1,600 = N160,000,” another user, Dan Arewa wrote.