N30,000 National minimum wage started April 18 ― FG

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N30,000 National minimum wage started April 18 ― FG

THE Federal Government declared at the weekend that the new national minimum wage of N30,000 will become effective April 18, stressing that state governments and employers yet to commence payment by May end are already in deficit.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja the, Minister of Labour and Employment, Senator Chris Ngige said arriving at the new minimum wage was a tortuous and excruciating journey, describing it as an achievement for the President Muhammadu Buhari administration.

Over the agitations that state governors may not pay the new wage, the minister said the National minimum wage law is now a national law and no governor can say he would not pay.

“The Issue of the national minimum wage is item 34 on the exclusive legislative list of the third schedule of the Nigerian constitution. Issue of labour is also there and not on the concurrent list. If it is on the concurrent list, then they can make their own state Assembly laws on that. Every state government is now owing their workers if they have not started paying N30,000. They are owing workers effective from 18th of April, the new minimum wage.”

The minister said consequential effects of how the wage adjustment will affect other cadres of the workforce are already being discussed as a committee has been set up to design a new salary template.

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He said, “We are now in a committee working out a new template with which we will adjust upward the consequential adjustment for those already earning above N30,000. The minimum wage is for the most vulnerable down the ladder and that is the man on grade level. So, you must consequentially adjust for the man on grade level two, grade level three, grade level four and five, because that man on GL 1 step 1 has overtaken them with his new payment. That is what we refer to as consequential adjustment. This consequential adjustment touches more the people on the lower ladder and we are working it out.”

According to the minister, some employers in the private sector adjusted immediately because it is easier for them to do, saying in the government sector, the bureaucracy and bottleneck of government are responsible for the delay.

He said, “You know that you must budget for it. That is what is causing the delay. But whenever the encumbrances are removed, they will pay arrears with effect from 18th April 2019. So, the sooner an establishment starts paying, the better for you so that you don’t take a huge backlog that you cannot take. If you pay in piecemeal and start going, the better. So, I advise all employers of labour in Nigeria, including state government to immediately set up their Joint Negotiating Councils so that whatever we get from here, we give it to them and they will look at it based on their peculiarities.”

Ngige said state governments should be careful not to make the same mistake they made after the N18,000 minimum wage was passed.

He said: “In 2011, there was a mistake in the consequential adjustment in some states when they applied the principle of percentage increase across the board and they ran into trouble and were unable to pay. What this N30,000 translates into is that there is a 67 per cent increase. If a state government apply the same 67 per cent increase across the board, there will be serious trouble, the same with the federal government and when there is that trouble, there will be trade dispute because the principle of ability to pay will come in.

Explaining some of the intricacies during the minimum wage discussion, Ngige said when the Buhari administration came on board, about 27 states were unable to pay the existing minimum wage of N18,000.

He said though there was revenue shortfall, the government was committed to a salary increment for workers because it is a genuine demand.

“And there was a demand, a genuine demand necessitated by the increase in the pump price of PMS and the fact that inflation has eaten deep into the N18,000 and also by the fact that there was a big depreciation of the dollar, even though we were not computing everything about wages with the dollar.

N30,000 National minimum wage started April 18 ― FG
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