N70,000 Minimum Wage No Longer Sustainable –NLC

Posted by Nwa Diokpa Featured, Latest Headlines, News, News Across Nigeria Sunday, September 7th, 2025

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, and national authorities workers person asked for a speedy reappraisal of the nationalist minimum wage, saying that the contiguous N70,000 is nary longer sustainable.

The workers made this request aft the agitations of respective states crossed the state calling for an summation successful the minimum wage of their workers supra the N70,000 benchmark owed to the contiguous economical realities.

The labour unions and workers who spoke to the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, successful abstracted interviews, contended that successful the look of galloping inflation, rising costs of food, transportation, housing, and different indispensable services, the N70,000 minimum wage could nary longer prolong them.

It would beryllium recalled that President Bola Tinubu signed the caller National Minimum Wage Bill into instrumentality successful July 2024, raising the minimum wage from N30,000 to N70,000.

The amended instrumentality applies to the full country, including the national government, states, section governments, and the backstage sector.

However, connected August 27, 2025, Imo accrued the minimum wage from N70,000 to N104,000, on with corresponding increases successful the full wage operation for the state’s civilian servants.

The authorities Governor, Hope Uzodinma, had said that the wage review, arrived astatine during a gathering with organised labour, was portion of efforts to amended the payment of workers.

Before the bold and applauded measurement by Uzodinma, immoderate different states had implemented higher minimum wages for their workers.

On October 16, 2024, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State announced a minimum wage summation to N85,000, with a committedness to further rise it to N100,000 successful 2025.

Rivers State arsenic approved N85,000 minimum wage connected October 18, 2024, portion Bayelsa, Niger, Enugu, and Akwa Ibom states approved N80,000 for their workers. Ogun and Delta states are implementing N77,000 minimum wage, Benue and Osun states raised the wage to N75,000, portion Ondo State pegged its ain astatine N73,000.

Acting General Secretary of the NLC, Mr. Benson Upah, told NAN connected Sunday successful Abuja that ostentation has eroded the worth of the N70,000 minimum wage, leaving galore workers incapable to conscionable basal needs.

“The information is that N70,000 is not sustainable nether the contiguous economical situation.

“Workers are nether immense pressure, and unless the authorities responds quickly, the situation of endurance volition lone worsen.

“We person since engaged the Federal Government connected this substance astatine antithetic times and fora,” helium said.