Former Minister of Works and Housing Babatunde Fashola, on Monday, emphasized that workers deserve reasonable wage adjustments, especially amidst rising living costs.
He highlighted the distinction between wages and salaries, stressing the need for a reevaluation of Nigeria’s minimum wage approach.
“When cost of living rises as they have now, the lowest and the highest income earners are impacted to varying degrees and therefore deserving of reasonable adjustments whether they earn wages or salaries,” the former Lagos State governor said in a piece titled, ‘Minimum Wage Review – My Take Away’.
Fashola also faulted Section 4(1)(b) of the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 which exempted “an establishment employing less than 25 persons” from being bound by the provisions of the Act to pay the minimum wage.
The former minister said the exemption of such establishments “raises serious doubts about whether we have enacted a minimum wage Act if small businesses who barely have 25 employees but who employ the largest number of the most vulnerable people are exempted from the law as currently legislated”.
