Minimum Wage - A Financial Saga.

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I have always tried as much not to listen to the news especially when it comes to politics. I don't know why the news doesn't give good news but bad news always. I realized that most of the time those who watch the news or are up to date with it always find it difficult to be happy. They are most times concerned about the country's affairs instead of focusing more on their lives.

The news to me is kinda polished to make people concerned and feel worried. Or maybe put fear in the hearts of people. The media has its backside and people are operating the system. I think the media most times publish beyond what has happened or they rather don't publish at all.

The trends in the country right now are about the economy. The hardship, and also the rapid increase in inflation of goods and services in the country. Despite all of these, wages and salaries of workers remained stagnant.

This brought about a debate among the federal agencies on how to go about the battle against inflation. The debate concluded that there should be an increase in the amount of minimum wage paid to workers.

That was a good conclusion, but the issue here is not really about coming to conclusions but implementing it. The present minimum wage paid to employees is 33,000 naira and if we should divide this by the amount of working days in the month, then it's like they are being paid 1300 naira per day.

Imagine this amount paid to a family man who has responsibilities on him, his family keeps growing every single day, and his allowance remains the same, in addition to the heavy inflation rate. How would these people cope in times like this?

The increase in minimum wage is yet to be implemented, though we all know that the increase in the amount paid to workers would also be a factor of inflation due to an increase in demand.

So if I am to make a suggestion then I would advise that the government rather than work on the economic situation of the country, should give our money some value. And also work with price control. If all of these could be done, and our money got a good value, then the amount paid to workers would be meaningful to them.

But if they still decide to increase the amount paid to workers as their minimum wage, it's fine. But increasing that would make no difference if the economic situation of the country keeps getting worse.

The proposed price as I heard from the news was about 80 to 100 thousand naira. But the government is having a negotiation to drop it down to 62 thousand naira which is just like having a double amount of the old payment.

In conclusion

It's not really about the amount paid to workers that matters, but can the amount suffice for average Nigerians? Some employees out there are not federal government workers, they work with private institutions and at times earn lower than the minimum wage.

And also even though the minimum wage is at the lowest of 33 thousand naira. Some governments are still finding it difficult to pay their workers. Thereby owing them their rights. Some states are owed months without pay, what if the increment got approved, what would happen to the citizens of those states that are denied theirs??.

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