CHRIS Ngige, labour and employment minister has asked state government and all employers of labour to commence the implementation of the minimum wage with immediate effect.
He told journalists on Sunday that, “any state government that has not started implementation of the new minimum wage is automatically owing its workers, and any state that does percentage increase will put itself in a disadvantaged position as it will not be able to pay”.
Ngige said the new wage took effect from April 18, 2019, with the signing of the of the bill into law by the President Muhammadu Buhari, and all arrears would commence from its enactment into law.
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“The minimum wage was one of the products of the technical committee that worked on the palliatives as a result of the increase in the pump price of PMS.
He noted his ministry anchored this development, alongside government delegation which comprises seven ministries, the national salaries and wages commission and the state government.
“We are now in a committee working out a new template with which we will adjust the consequential adjustment upstairs for those already earning above N30, 000.”
President Buhari had on April 18, assented to the new national minimum wage bill recently passed by the National Assembly, thus raising the national minimum wage from N18,000 to N30,000.
The Act makes it compulsory for all employers of labour to pay their workers a minimum wage of N30,000, excluding persons employing less than 25 workers or persons in other kinds of regulated employment.
The struggle for an increment in the national minimum wage has been on for a long time as the organised labour tried all within its power to make the government see the need to increase workers’ pay.