New Minimum Wage: How we arrived at N615,000 — Labour

The Organised Labour has given details of how it arrived at its demand for a new minimum wage of N615,000.

The justification was made by the Nigeria Labour Congress in a statement it issued on behalf of Organised Labour.

According to the statement signed by the President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, the breakdown of the N615,000 include Housing/Accommodation @N40,000 a month; Electricity/Power @ N20,000 a month; Utility/Water @N10,000; Kerosene/Gas @N35,000; Food @N9,000 a day multiplied by 30 days (month) N270,000; Medicals for a month @N50,000; Clothing for a month @N20,000; education for a month @N50,000; sanitation for a month@ N10,000; and transportation for a month @N110,000.

The statement said the N615,000 excludes calls and data, offerings in churches and mosques, community dues, entertainment, savings and security among others.

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The statement by Ajaero, titled: “2024 National Minimum Wage negotiation: How we arrived at N615,000,” said: “It has become imperative at this point that we inform Nigerians, who may not have known already the foundations upon which our initial demand for a N615,000 new National Minimum Wage is based.

“The figure is a product of a painstaking effort through which we captured the cost of living of Nigerian workers and masses in all parts of the country. It was essentially an outcome of independent research conducted by the NLC and Trade Union Congress, TUC, on the cost of meeting the primary needs of an average family around the country. Our research was based on a family with both parents alive and four children without the burden of having other dependents with them.

“A questionnaire was designed and sent to all the state councils of NLC and TUC from where these questionnaires were sent to our members in all the local government areas in the country to gather the monthly cost of living for the average family as described above.

“In the items and cost, we hope that this will enable Nigerians to understand what propels our demand so that better clarity is made to create better engagement around the ongoing National Minimum Wage Negotiation process.

“We deliberately removed certain elements from the basket used in calculations of this nature. However, it should also be noted that we have not included things like expenditure on calls and data, offerings in churches and mosques, community dues, entertainment, savings and security etc. These are, therefore, just for the bare necessities.

“It should be noted that we arrived at the figure of N615,000 before the increase in electricity tariff and the recent scarcity of petrol across the nation leading to the appearance of long queues with attendant increased transport fares. Any figure below the N615,000 amount becomes a starvation wage and condemns Nigerian workers and their families to perpetual poverty.

“We have to remember that the old minimum wage has expired on April 18, 2024, and a new one is expected to have come into effect on April 19, 2024. However, because of the government’s inability to comply with the law that demanded negotiations for a new national minimum wage to have begun six months before the expiration of the existing one, concluding the new one has become unfortunately delayed.

“We are sure that our social partners would see our demonstration of understanding, sacrifice and reasonableness in our demands and thus accept this figure without much delay. We also enjoin all well-meaning Nigerians to implore the government and employers to meet our demands for the sake of justice, equity and national development.”