A claim that the Federal House of Representatives has proposed N100,000 as the new minimum wage for workers in Nigeria has been circulating online. The claim was made in a report by Intel Region, an online news platform, on March 6, 2024. The report was titled, “JUST IN: House of Reps proposes N100,000 as minimum wage for Nigerian workers”.
The report claimed that the House of Representatives had agreed on the new minimum wage during a plenary session on Wednesday, March 6, 2024. It also claimed that the decision was influenced by the rising prices of food items since the removal of fuel subsidies and the demand of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for a salary review.
The report quoted the deputy minority leader of the House, Aliyu Madaki, as saying, “We are also aware that Trade Economics in 2018 reported the living wage for an individual Nigerian and a Nigerian family to be N43,200 per month and N137,600 per month, respectively. This was a pre-subsidy removal report. Further note that presently, no labourer can live in Nigeria with a wage of less than N100,000.00.”
However, a fact-check by the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD) War Room has revealed that the claim is misleading. The CDD War Room received the claim through Check by Meedan, an online tip-line tool, and verified it using official sources and media reports.
The CDD War Room found that the House of Representatives has not decided on N100,000 as the proposed amount for the anticipated new minimum wage for Nigerian workers. Rather, a member of the House only stated during the presentation of a motion at the plenary on March 6 that an average worker could no longer live well with a wage less than N100,000 given the current economic situation in the country.
The motion, titled “Need to provide living wage for workers in Nigeria,” was sponsored by Madaki, who is a member of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) representing Dala Federal Constituency of Kano State. Madaki, who led the debate on the motion, called for a sufficient minimum wage for Nigerian workers, noting that the existing minimum wage of N30,000 was inadequate to meet the basic needs of workers and their families.
The House adopted the motion and resolved to set up an ad-hoc committee to look into the modalities for the payment of living wages at rates that match economic realities. The committee was mandated to liaise with the relevant stakeholders, including the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, the NLC, and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), and report back within four weeks.
The development was reported by several reputable media outlets, on March 6 and 7, 2024, respectively. The reports did not mention that the House had agreed on N100,000 as the new minimum wage, but rather that the House had set up a committee to look into the issue.
The CDD War Room, therefore, urges the public to disregard the claim that the House of Representatives has proposed N100,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers. The claim is misleading and not based on facts.
