The federal government has maintained that the N62,000 monthly minimum wage offer recommended by the tripartite committee set up by President Bola Tinubu was made after taking into consideration the national interest and current economic indices.
Minister of National Budget and Economic Planning, Senator Atiku Bagudu, and Chairman of the 37-man Tripartite Committee on National Minimum Wage, Alhaji Bukar Aji, made the remarks in separate chats with THISDAY in Abuja.
The source told THISDAY that most of the states were heavily indebted due to loans taken by their predecessors and could not afford the new minimum wage.In the interview with THISDAY, Bagudu stated that members of the committee took cognisance of the prevailing economic situation, information, data, national interest, developments in the polity, macro economy and the ongoing economic reforms by the administration before arriving at the figure.
Aji said the committee's recommendation to Tinubu, which would be sent to the National Assembly for passage as National Minimum Wage Act, came as a"result of deeper understanding and deeper study of all the economic indices". He described the negotiation on national minimum wage at the tripartite level with organised labour and the organised private sector in the last four months as a serious business.
According to a source, who disclosed the position of the governors, any forced wage bill on the states could lead to the retrenchment of up to 40 per cent of the workforce in the states. "In the United States, which we are emulating, take, for instance, the salaries of the governors of Vermont, New York and California are different with some rural states of Mississippi and others. The governor of Vermont and his counterpart in California earn over $200,000 per year, but the governor of Mississippi earns less. This is operation of the federal constitution in place."
The unions maintained that Anambra State was not paying the consequential adjustment as prescribed in the 2019 Minimum Wage Act, prompting Soludo to tell the gathering that in the 2019 minimum wage bill, there were no provisions for consequential adjustment payment.
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