{"id":118205,"date":"2025-05-01T20:35:34","date_gmt":"2025-05-01T19:35:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/?p=118205"},"modified":"2025-05-01T20:35:34","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T19:35:34","slug":"minimum-wage-worker-celebrating-mere-existence-not-living-wage-says-nlc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pointblanknews.com\/pbn\/exclusive\/minimum-wage-worker-celebrating-mere-existence-not-living-wage-says-nlc\/","title":{"rendered":"Minimum Wage: Worker celebrating mere existence not living wage, says NLC"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>By Myke Agunwa<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has lamented that the N70,000 minimum wage is not a living wage and has not improved workers welfare as economic reality has eroded it but merely keeping workers alive.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Prof. Theophilus Ndubuaku, a member of Minimum Wage Committee of the NLC who admitted the reality on Thursday while speaking with journalistsndutong the Workers Day celebration, said that unions will go back to the negotiation table to talk about living wage since the N70,000 is no longer a living wage.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>According to him, workers are\u00a0 just celebrating that they are still alive and not that they are\u00a0 workers or earning a meaningful wage.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He said, \u201cA situation where you said, you have increased minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000, somebody who is earning N200,000 should be expecting a minimum of 75 percent increase but in this case you have people being given N40,000 across board.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe situation is like there was nothing really done because the hardship has continued. Look at the fact that so many states have not paid the minimum wage. You have a situation where tax has increased by 66 per cent, there\u2019s also the issue of electricity tariff, increase in fuel pump price. There\u2019s also an increase in the tariff on communications.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;There\u2019s so much money coming into government coffers but the workers are suffering. You can see why the World Bank is saying that the poverty line has increased. It has increased from 38 per cent to 47 percent. So, 47 per cent of Nigerians are now living below the poverty line. We\u2019re going to discuss the living wage because the inflationary trend has eroded the much that was done to see how we can lift people up from poverty.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;There was a strike recently in the FCT because the FCT administration hasn\u2019t paid the minimum wage. The same FCT that hasn\u2019t paid minimum wage, the council chairman has defected to another party. You then wonder if he hasn\u2019t paid workers which make up the majority of the population, and he\u2019s defecting to another party. How does he expect to win election in a party under which Nigerians are suffering, because he believes he\u2019ll be helped to win the election not by voting, because he wouldn\u2019t be relying on the voters but on abracadabra to win.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cToday we say we\u2019re celebrating workers Day. What are we celebrating? I think we\u2019re just celebrating that we\u2019re still alive and not that we\u2019re workers.&#8221;<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>On the way forward, he said, \u201cThe way forward is to get back to the drawing board. To see that the struggle continues. We\u2019ll need to continue to talk to those in power to know that we can\u2019t continue like this. Within one year the poverty line has increased by 10 per cent, from 38 to 47 per cent. This 47 per cent is over 100,000 million Nigerians.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cInstead of the percentage decreasing it\u2019s increasing. Somebody will say that the economy is improving, how can the economy improve while we\u2019re dying of hunger in this country?\u201d<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>He said that there must be more engagements with the political class to ensure that workers welfare are improved upon.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe way forward is to get back to the drawing board. To see the struggle continues. We\u2019ll need to continue to talk to those in power to know that we can\u2019t continue like this. If within one year the poverty line has increased by 10 percent, from 38 to 47 per cent. This 47 per cent is over 100,000 million Nigerians.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u00a0\u201cInstead of the percentage deceasing it\u2019s increasing. Somebody will say that the economy is improving, how can the economy improve while we\u2019re dying of hunger in this country. When you\u2019re talking about workers day you\u2019re not just talking about those who have been captured in the orgainised labour.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cThe workforce in this country is about 50 per cent, that is 110 million people. If you have 110,000 workforce and you have over 100,000 million people below poverty line, this country is heading to disaster. We\u2019ll go back to the drawing board and also look at the issue of governance. Why people in governance don\u2019t get bothered about the masses, it\u2019s because they don\u2019t really depend on our votes to get to power.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;It takes us to the issue of how we need to maneuver to get Nigeria to make sure that our votes count because if an elected governor or a member of House of Representatives or Senate knows that he\u2019s coming bank to the voters to seek for their votes, definitely he\u2019ll make sure that He empowers them economically.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\u201cIn a situation where I know I don\u2019t need them I will just defect to another party, an organization that will help you get to power without the votes from the masses. This brings us to issue of electoral reform. It\u2019s not a rocket science because there are countries where you can vote and there is no rigging, and votes count.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>&#8220;How do we mobilise to ensure that our votes count in Nigeria so that the people we elect into office will take care of us?\u00a0 We\u2019ll renegotiate with government and tell them the way things are. You get N70,00 but that N70,000 impoverishes the workers and this N40,000 across board is a no, no. We also look at all the tariffs, inflationary trends and the issue of job creation, so that Nigerians can work for their pay.\u201d<\/div>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Myke Agunwa The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has lamented that the N70,000 minimum wage is not a living wage and has not improved workers welfare as economic reality has&hellip;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Related Posts generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113606,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-exclusive"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.8 - 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