We Will Not Pay More Than ₦57,000 – Govs Reject FG’s ₦62,000 New Minimum Wage

State governors and the private sector have reportedly rejected the ₦62,000 new national minimum wage proposed by the federal government.

Naija News earlier reported that the Federal Government had increased its new national minimum wage offer from ₦60,000 to ₦62,000.

On the other hand, organised labour has also reduced its demand from ₦494,000 to ₦250,000.

However, findings by Punch have indicated that while the Federal Government may be ready to accept ₦65,000 as the new minimum wage, governors and the organised private sector insist that any figure above ₦57,000 may not be sustainable.

According to insiders, the governors’ major argument is that the states would be left with nothing for developmental projects if they accepted a minimum wage above ₦57,000, as they would have to pay a large chunk of their resources as wages to workers.

However, the negotiation for a new minimum wage is far from over as Organised Labour and the Federal Government continue to make offers and counter-offers.

A governor from the South who spoke with the aforementioned publication lamented how he would use huge amounts to pay less than 200,000 civil servants in the state, who did not constitute more than five percent of the population.

Organised Private Sector also accused the federal government of making decisions without consulting them.

“The FG has literally shaved our heads in our absence. Though we had nominal representations, they were not allowed to come back to us for proper consultation,” said a manufacturer in Lagos who craved anonymity

Also, documents seen with one of the governors who is a member of the negotiation team show the states’ precarious financial status and their inability to pay anything above the ₦57,000 they proposed alongside the private sector.

One of the documents, which was released by the secretariat of the Nigeria Governor’s Forum and titled, ‘Comparative Analysis of States Gross Allocation Between Subsidy and Non-Subsidy Regimes (January – December 2023)’, showed the gross income received by states from the Federation Account.