Minimum Wage: How We Arrived At N615,000, By NLC
The Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) has revealed how it arrived at the N615,000 minimum wage proposal being currently negotiated with the Federal Government.
NLC President, Joe Ajaero, in a statement today (Friday) said the figure was 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 an independent research conducted by the NLC and 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 below.
Housing/Accommodation N40,000; Electricity/Power, N20,000; Utility Water, N10,000; Kerosene/Gas N35,000; Food 9,000 X 30 is N270,000; Medical N50,000; Clothing N20,000; Education 50,000; Sanitation N10,000; Transportation N10,000, Total is N615,000.
Ajaero said: “A cursory look at the table above shows that we have 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 this figure 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 this amount becomes a starvation wage and condemns Nigerian workers and their families to perpetual poverty.
“We have to remember that the old one having expired on the 18th day of April, 2024, a new one is expected to have come into effect on the 19th day of April, 2024.
“However, because of government’s inability to comply with the Law that demanded for 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,” he said.
