Minimum Wage, Rising Cost of Living

Mention the term, ‘minimum wage’ in my country and you already have yourself a mouthful of conversations. Are we going to talk about how it took a lot of time, considerations, unwillingness, efforts and unnecessary/needless actions before the needs of the people were said to be considered, thereby leading to a rise in the minimum wage to what we currently have? It's a pathetic anomaly that such a matter should be treated the way it was and is, knowing fully well the cost of living as well as the economic impact, in relation to the status of most citizens.

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Welfare of the people remains a major duty of the government. It's sad then that what would provide better welfare for the masses can be treated with such laxity and a lackadaisical attitude. I have to mention all these before going well into the major points of this discourse because of how disheartening it is to see citizens, even those who are said to be government workers suffering to get by each day because they have a minimum wage that doesn't accommodate their needs to the barest minimum. Yet, the leaders don't acknowledge the need to do better, even giving flimsy excuses.

What's the minimum wage in my country? After a lot of efforts and demands, back and forth from citizens, it was raised about two years ago from 30,000 to 70,000 naira. Currently, this is around 28 to 50 dollars respectively. This is in a country where living itself is considered a survival skill. If you ask me today and tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, that minimum wage doesn't suffice. It's funny that the government felt they did well with this effort. But the thing is, when we make a clear comparison with the cost of things and living itself, it's way below what citizens need.

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If it were doubled, it wouldn't be enough. Making it thrice the amount sounds like a good offer and one that we can say is okay. That would be 210,000 naira, and approximately 152 dollars. But no, not with the cost of living. Not to mention when a single allowance from a political office holder－a senator here precisely－can pay more than three times the amount of this minimum wage of a good number of citizens. They would always say there's no money to pay such a huge sum of money to citizens, which was the excuse from many governors when there was an effort to raise it to the current state. But we know there's the money to pay the citizens more than this.

Rather than saying that a certain minimum wage will be sufficient to provide a decent life in this country, I'd rather say that there should be an economic reform. No matter how much one earns in this country, as long as you're on a payroll and with the economic demands and struggles prevalent today, it won't seem to be enough. Talk about feeding, transportation, rent payment, school fees, health needs, and other personal needs. It's a lot to just give a sum to it. And it all boils down to an intentional effort from the government for an economic reform, with the interest of the people in mind.

Thank you for reading!