Minimum wage review: My perspective
By Babatunde Fashola THE extant law on minimum wage is the National Minimum Wage Act 2019, which came into force on the 18th April 2019; and it provides in Section 3 (4) that: “The national minimum wage expires after five years, and it shall be reviewed in line with the provision of this Act.” Please note that it is the “minimum wage” that has expired but not the Act, and as is shown in the underlined portion above, the review of the 2019 minimum wage provisions, after the period of five years, shall be in line with the provision of the 2019 Act. What is the minimum wage? The answer is to be found in Section 3 (1) of the law where it provides that: “Every employer shall pay a national minimum wage of not less than N30,000 per month to every worker under his establishment, except as otherwise provided under this Act.” Please note the words used in the underlined portion of the provision, namely; “wage” and “per month”. Bearing in mind that this is a ...