The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has said the N615, 000 new minimum wage was arrived at based on result of a questionnaire sent to the state councils of both NLC and Trade Union Congress (TUC).
President of the NLC, Comrade Joe Ajaero in a statement said “It has become imperative at this point that Nigerians who may not have known already the foundations upon which our initial demand for a N615,000 (Six Hundred and Fifteen Thousand Naira) new National Minimum Wage is based upon be told.”
He said the figure was a product of a painstaking effort through which we captured the cost of living of Nigerian workers and masses in all parts of the country.
“It was essentially an outcome of an independent research conducted by the NLC and TUC on the cost of meeting the primary needs of an average family around the country.
“Our research was based on a family with both parents alive and four children without the burden of having other dependents with them.
“A questionnaire was designed and sent to all the State Councils of NLC and TUC from where these questionnaires were sent to our members in all the Local government areas in the country to gather the monthly cost of living for the average family as described above.
“It should be noted that we arrived at this figure before the increase in electricity tariff and the recent scarcity of Petrol across the nation leading to the appearance of long queues with attendant increased transport fares. Any figure below this amount becomes a starvation wage and condemns Nigerian workers and their families to perpetual poverty.
“We are sure that our social partners would see our demonstration of understanding, sacrifice and reasonableness in our demands thus accepts this figure without much delay. We also enjoin all well-meaning Nigerians to implore the Government and Employers to meet our demands for the sake of justice, equity and national development,” he said.
