Wale Ẹdun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy says the proposed minimum wage by the Labour Unions is not affordable.
The organised labour is demanding ₦494,000 national minimum wage but the FG is offering ₦60,000.
Edun disclosed this while appearing as a guest on Channels Television Sunday Politics.
Edun noted that the worker deserves to be paid and negotiation is an integral part of democracy.
“Given what is going on, he deserves a change and in fact by law, every five years, maybe we don’t have to wait till five years to set a new wage scale,” he said.
The Minister however pointed out that: “By law, it is a minimum wage. We are not setting a wage for the federal government workers. In a federation, you are setting a minimum figure that states must pay, that local government must pay, that the private sector must pay, that small businesses must pay.
“It is a fixed figure, not a scale. So, there are elements of how we have set the minimum wage in the past particularly what they called the consequential adjustment which given what labour is asking for today, would be unaffordable across the board.
“We have to focus on the fact that once it is enshrined in law, everybody that falls into the category of having to pay the minimum wage must pay it.
“Therefore, the affordability has to be taken into account. We probably has to also take into account the fact that there are other ways of supporting the cost of living of workers other than that particular wage scale,” he said.
He, however, promised that a decision would be reached with the Labour for the benefit of Nigerian Workers.
Meanwhile, the NLC and TUC, on Friday, announced that workers across the nation are embarking on an indefinite strike starting on Monday, June 3 (Today).
Sequel to the announcement, the leadership of the National Assembly waded in and met with the top officials of the Organized Labour on Sunday.
However, the meeting ended in deadlock and the strike is expected to commence in few hours, barring a miracle.
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