The Labour Party has said that if its presidential candidate, Peter Obi, wins the 2023 election, the country’s minimum wage can be as high as N80,000 to N100,000.
The Deputy National Chairman of the LP, Ayo Olorunfemi, said this on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily programme.
Olorunfemi said the party is considering implementing ₦80,000 to ₦100,000 as the new minimum wage, depending on the job, as opposed to the present ₦30,000, which he said does not reflect the reality of Nigerians.
This follows the long-awaited manifesto unveiled by the LP, in which Obi endorsed the idea of paying hourly wages instead of the country’s monthly format.
The deputy LP chairman explained further: “It depends on the nature of the job that would be given out. For instance, when you take a cursory look at the manual labourer out there, he does not take less than ₦2,500 to ₦3,000 per day, which is still not okay as far as the reward system is concerned. If you divide ₦3,000 by six hours, you will talk about ₦500 per hour.
“So, when you benchmark that against what we have now, certainly you would be talking of something within the range of ₦500 to ₦1,000 per hour depending on the nature of work, and at the end of the day, someone can effectively say that he can make up to ₦4,000 in a day.
“And when you multiply ₦4,000 in a day by 20 or 25, we are talking about ₦80,000 or ₦100,000 in a month. ₦80,000 to ₦100,000 is exactly where we are going!”
“The Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress have been brought in, and plans are underway. When we get there, you will see how this thing works, and I can assure you that Nigerian workers will be happier.
“We don’t have to expose how it will be implemented before they mess it up,” he added.
