The President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero has addressed the issue of governors determining the minimum wage based on state revenue by drawing a parallel with senators’ uniform earnings regardless of their states’ economic status. He argued that senators from poorer states earn the same as those from wealthier states without any deregulation.
He emphasized the need to consider what is best for the country as a whole rather than implementing disparate salary structures. He also responded to the organized private sector’s concerns about the proposed minimum wage, acknowledging that the issue has always been contentious. He stated that the private sector’s reluctance to pay agreed wages has been a recurring challenge, with employers frequently resisting wage increases despite agreements.
He said in an interview with TVC From Minute 7:23, ”On the issue of governors paying whatever they like to Workers based on their revenue. Senators that come from states that are poor are earning the same amount with other senators. So do we now deregulate it so that senators from states that don’t have money will earn maybe N50,000, those that have money will earn maybe N100,000. I don’t think that is the right way to look at the matter, we need to look at it and see what is the best for the country.”
He also reacted to the organized private sector complaint of not being able to pay the Labour proposed minimum wage amount, he said, ”The issue of paying minimum wage have always been contentious. Even when it was 3000, there was even more strikes in the country to implement. The issue of we are not able to pay has always been there in the organized private sector, no employer comes up to pay whatever you agree.
I’m not sure that the organized private sector are the worst employers in terms of implementing the previous minimum wage. However, they have other challenges With regards to the ease of doing business. Even the removal of subsidy increased the cost of doing business but relatively speaking, they were equally increasing the margin of their product. What was sold at 10,000 before now is being sold for N30,000.”….Seë_Morë