All workers in both public and private sectors, including maids and other domestic staff are entitled to the new minimum wage of N70,000.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio said this at the plenary session on Tuesday.
Both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed the bill transmitted to them by President Bola Tinubu.
Akpabio said, “If you are a tailor and you employ additional hands, you cannot pay them below N70,000. If you are a mother with a newborn child and you want to hire a housemaid to look after your child, you cannot pay the person below the approved minimum wage. It is not a minimum wage. It applies to all and sundry
“If you hire a driver or gateman, you cannot pay them below N70,000. So, I’m very delighted that this has been passed, and we now look forward to employers of labour improving on what has been set as a benchmark for all to follow.
“I congratulate the Nigeria Labour Congress, all Nigerians, and the National Assembly for this epoch-making legislation, which has even reduced the term of negotiations from five years to three years in view of the increasing cost of living. This is, again, a landmark legislation, so congratulations.”
The new bill supersedes the National Minimum Wage Act, No. 8, 2019, which approved a N30,000 minimum wage with five years to negotiate a new wage. The new wage review is now three years following Tuesday’s legislation.
The Majority Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele, said N70,000 was agreed upon by all the parties after negotiations.
“This is part of the Federal Government’s short-term measure to mitigate the situation in the country,” Bamidele said.
