The National Assembly has started the public hearing in the new minimum wage bill.
Members of both Senate and House of Representatives are present as well as Chris Ngige, minister of labour and employment, and Zainab Ahmed, the minister of finance, Sahara Reporters reports.
Yakubu Dogara, the speaker of the House of Representatives, said the “consideration and passage of the bill is exigent because the country is at a brink of a national industrial crisis”.
While he said the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) had reject the proposed N27,000 minimum wage, Dogara, however, said that the National Assembly will work to support the interest of workers.
The speaker of the house acknowledged the dwindling economic revenue the country is facing as he also said even the demanded the N30,000 minimum wage is not enough for an average Nigerian worker.
He also connected the problem of corruption with poor remuneration of workers as he said: “The answer is for us to pay living wage and not minimum wage.”
Recall that we previously reported that Chris Ngige, the minister of labour and employment says the national minimum wage of N27,000 is standard for all workers, but the federal government will pay federal workers N30,000.
The minister made this known in a statement signed by lliya Rhoda, assistant director of Press, of the ministry in Abuja on Saturday, January 26.
According to the minister, President Muhammadu Buhari constituted a Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage in November 2018 to consider the issue and recommend a new national minimum wage.
