Minimum Wage: Jubilation As 17 Governors Agree to Pay Workers N70,000, Set Up Panels

• Good news for workers as 17 state governors have set up committees that will oversee the implementation of the N70,000 minimum wage
• According to reports released on Monday, the state ready to pay workers the newly approved wage are Ogun, Ekiti, Sokoto, Kebbi, Osun, Enugu, Borno and 10 others
• This is after the federal government announced that civil servants will be paid the N70,000 new minimum wage from September 2024

Legit.ng journalist Esther Odili has over two years of experience covering political parties and movements.

Seventeen state governors have raised committees to implement the N70,000 new minimum wage for workers across the country.

Minimum wage: 17 govs set up implementation committee

The 17 states that set up the implementation committees are Ogun, Ekiti, Sokoto, Kebbi, Osun, Enugu, Borno, Zamfara, Kogi, Kwara, Gombe, Kano, Taraba, Delta, Rivers, Jigawa, and Abia.

As reported by The Punch on Monday, September 30, the development occurred as the federal government led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu commenced payment of the new minimum wage to its 1.2 million workers last Thursday.

The Accountant General of the Federation, Oluwatoyin Madein, in a memo to the Budget Office of the Federation, noted that the civil servants would be paid the minimum wage with effect from September.

On the heels of this, Edo, Lagos, Adamawa states have also commenced payment of the new salary as Anambra state governor, Professor Chukwuma Soludo, pledged to implement the minimum wage in October.

The Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Adamawa state, Emmanuel Fashe, confirmed that Governor Ahmadu Fintiri started paying the new minimum wage in August 2024, ahead of the federal government and other states.

Fashe who spoke to The Punch on Sunday, September 29, said that in less than three weeks after President Tinubu signed the new minimum wage bill into law in July, the Adamawa state government commenced payment in August.

He said the state workers got their August salaries but the local government workers received their new minimum wage in September.

Fashe, who blamed the delayed council workers’ salaries payment on the new minimum wage, said that the 2019 consequential adjustment template had to be used to calculate the new wage percentages, and the Accountant General’s office had to update the August payroll.

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NLC: N70k minimum wage now useless

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that the Nigeria Labour Congress expressed regret for accepting the N70,000 minimum wage.

At a recent event in Lagos state, Joe Ajaero lamented that the N70,000 wage has been rendered useless as petrol prices skyrocket and economic hardship persists.

The NLC president also lamented that Tinubu betrayed organised labour by increasing fuel prices immediately after signing the new minimum wage bill into law.

Source: Legit.ng