MINIMUM WAGE

The minimum wage in Nigeria used to be 30,000 naira which was barely enough to carry a single person for 1 week. Later in 2024 the Nigerian Government decided to increase it to 70,000 naira which a lot of people were happy for, only for the realization to hit that it wasn’t really enough and even after that realization, I am sure it will take a couple of years before the Nigerian government decides to do another adjustment to the minimum wage and by then things will no longer be as they are. We can only hope and pray that things are better and the government then will be more considerate and there will be enough to help when that time comes. The fact remains that this minimum wage doesn’t just help those in the public sector, it also helps those in the private sector and forces companies to pay their staff with at least the minimum wage value.

Photo by Kenny Eliason on Unsplash

Although there are still businesses who do not abide by the minimum wage, you just know that a lot of them are not government approved and because of that even the value of employees that they get is reduced. The minimum wage helps fresh graduates get value for their first job, and to be honest in this current economy the minimum wage will need to be doubled before one can consider it a fair price. At least fair enough to handle transportation, feeding, and utilities for a month in this state. If a person lives in Lagos, the minimum wage would at least need to be quadrupled in order to be able to be considered fair because life in Lagos and places like Abuja is very expensive. Notice I said fair not Okay. Here the minimum wage would need to be quintupled before one can be considered okay to a certain degree if they have side hustles and are very responsible in spending with no much responsibility to handle.

The fact is that the kind of house a person lives in depends on the salary they earn and that no matter how one tries to be responsible with money, there are things you just have to spend on. For someone to live comfortably and still have enough to save and spend, the person needs to be earning at least 10 times the minimum wage and not live in a city like Lagos or Abuja. If one must live there they must earn at least twice what someone who lives in Port Harcourt earns. This is the cruelty of life and the cost of living and there is nothing that can be done about it. This just shows that the cost of living in this country is higher than the minimum wage available to the average Nigerian. This realization makes me wonder how those who do linear jobs and live below minimum wage survive everyday, I have been there, and I know for sure that it ain’t easy on them, but unfortunately those with the power to change it, prefer to do nothing.

THIS IS MY RESPONSE TO HIVE LEARNER'S PROMPT FOR WEEK 211 EPISODE 1