The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, has said the new minimum wage bill stipulates that employers cannot pay their domestic workers such as drivers, housemaids and gatemen below the N70,000 benchmark.
Akpabio made this disclosure following the passing of the amendment of the Minimum Wage Act at a plenary session in Abuja on Tuesday.
According to Akpabio, the N70,000 wage is the minimum amount any worker can earn and it applies to all workers, not just those in government jobs.
“The bill states that if you’re a tailor and you employ additional hand, you cannot pay the person below N70,000.
“Even if you’re a mother and you have a newborn child and you want to bring in a house maid to look after your child, you cannot pay that house maid below N70,000. It is not maximum wage. It applies to all and sundry.
“If you have a driver or a gateman, you cannot pay them below N70,000,” Akpabio said.
He therefore urged all employers to prepare for the implementation of the new wage until President Tinubu signs the bill into law.
“So I’m very delighted that this has been passed and I look forward to employers of labour going ahead to improve on what has been set as a benchmark for all and sundry.
“So I congratulate the Nigeria Labour Congress. I congratulate all Nigerians. I congratulate all Nigerians. I congratulate the National Assembly for legislature which has reduced the term of the minimum wage from five years to three years. This again is a landmark victory for the Nigerian people,” Akpabio added.
What you should know
Nairametrics earlier reported that the National Assembly approved the new minimum wage bill of N70,000 for Nigerian workers during a plenary session yesterday.
The bill which was proposed by President Bola Tinubu came after months of negotiations between the federal government and the organised labour of the country.
On their part, the labour initially proposed a sum of N495,000 as the new minimum wage only to reduce it to N250,000 after meeting with the minimum wage committee.
However, following a couple meetings with president Bola Tinubu, labour agreed on the sum of N70,000, prompting the president to send a new minimum wage bill to the House of Representatives and the Senate.
The bill also includes a revise of the interval of the timeline from 5 years to 3 years.
The bill is expected to be signed by president Tinubu in the next few days, effectively making it a law in Nigeria.
