Private sector reacts to N27,000 minimum wage

- The new N27,000 minimum wage has been accepted the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association

- The DG of the association said the new minimum wage would lighten the burden of the micro, small and medium scale employers

- The association, however, expressed worry over the approval of N27,000 minimum wage for state workers and N30,000 for federal civil servants, saying that such disparity is alien to Nigeria

The Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association (NECA) which is the umbrella organization of employers in the organised private sector has accepted the N27,000 new minimum wage.

This figure was approved by the council of state which also approved N30 for federal workers.

Daily Trust reports that Timothy Olawale who is the director-general of NECA said the new minimum wage said it would lighten the burden of the micro, small and medium scale employers in the country.

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He said: “The figure recommended which is N3,000 less than the recommended figure by the Tripartite Committee comes with its own positives. The reduction will go a long way to lighten the burden of the micro, small and medium scale employers, which had been our concern hitherto. Granted too, that the exclusion threshold of 25 employees is expected to also take care of them.”

He, expressed worry over the approval of N27,000 minimum wage for state workers and N30,000 for federal civil servants, saying that such disparity is alien to Nigeria.

“It is alien and an aberration to have two national minimum wages. It is usually one national minimum wage and we hope this would be corrected by the National Assembly," he said.

Recall that lawmakers at the House of Representatives rejected the sum of N27,000 which was approved by the council of state as the new minimum wage, insisting that they support the N30,000 agreement reached by the government, organised labour and the private sector.

The legislators during plenary on Thursday, January 24, said that the sum of N30,000 was adopted as the new minimum wage by the tripartite committee, whose report was presented to President Muhammadu Buhari, The Punch reports.

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Shortly before deliberation on the bill, the speaker, Yakubu Dogara, read a letter by Buhari to the legislature, seeking an amendment to the minimum wage act 1981, to reflect a new minimum wage of N27,000.

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