The President of the United States, Joe Biden, has increased the minimum wage of those working on federal contracts to $15 per hour which corresponds with N6,750 at the parallel market exchange rate of N450 per dollar.
Biden made the announcement on Tuesday on his Twitter handle to notify all workers residing in the United State of the development.
In Nigeria, the minimum wage per month is N30,000 which equals $66 in the face of economic hardship, therefore, perpetuating paucity among the people as food prices and other essentials daily rise in the country.
He said, “I believe no one should work full time and still live in poverty. That’s why today, I raised the minimum wage to $15 an hour for people working on federal contracts.”
According to The PUNCH reports, after a series of protracted and frictional dialogues between the workers, employers and the government, President Muhammadu Buhari sent an executive bill to the National Assembly for amendment of the National Minimum Wage Act, in 2019.
Buhari signed the passed bill into law in April 2019, raising the minimum wage from N18,000 to N30,000.
Also, a bill seeking to allow states to independently regulate the minimum wage appropriate for them is currently being debated at the National Assembly.
Presently, the Nigerian Government still holds the exclusive powers to negotiate and determine the national minimum wage for workers across the three tiers of government in Nigeria.
The bill seeks an amendment to the 1999 Constitution by removing matters concerning wages from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List narrowly passed second reading due to the division among the lawmakers on the proposal.
When the bill becomes law, respective state and local governments will be able to control and fix different wages for their workers.
