Minimum wage is the lowest amount of remuneration that an employer is legally required to pay his employee for work performed by the employee during a given period. Such minimum sum fixed by law cannot be lowered by collective agreement between the employer and employee and both the employer and employee cannot also unilaterally reduce the minimum salary established by legislation.
In Nigeria, national minimum wage came into force in 1981, when it was fixed at N1,500 per month. This was increased to N3,000 monthly in 1991. The next increment took place in 2000 when the minimum monthly salary for workers was adjusted to N5,500. Thereafter, a new wage of N18,000 was implemented by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. The minimum wage was further increased to N30,000 in 2019. Likewise, the current administration of President Bola Tinubu raised the minimum wage to N70,000 on July 29.
The extant law that regulates minimum wage is the National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act 2024, (hereinafter referred to as “the law”). Section 3(1) of the law enjoins every employer to pay his employee not less than N70,000 per month. But workers working on a part-time basis, employees paid on commission or piece rate, seasonal employments, such as agriculture and employers employing less than 25 persons, are exempted from the N70,000 wage. Section 3(4) of the law provides that there must be an upward adjustment of the national minimum wage after three years.
By virtue of Section 7 of the law, the tripartite committee is the institutional framework empowered to review the minimum wage in Nigeria. The committee, constituted by the President, consisted of representatives of the Federal Government, organised labour, employers’ association and one state governor from each geo-political zone. The decision of the committee is final. Perhaps, it is pertinent to opine that the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) should be incorporated into the tripartite committee, in view of the fact that local governments are independent tier of government and major employers of labour. Every employer in Nigeria is legally bound to pay his workers not less than the minimum wage fixed by the law. Indeed, any employer who fails to pay his workers the minimum wage commits an offence and upon conviction liable to pay a fine of not more than five percent of the worker’s monthly salary and all outstanding arrears of such salary. On top of that, the court can compel the erring employer to pay interest equivalent to the prevailing Central Bank of Nigeria’s lending rate on the salary owed by the employer for each month of persistent failure to pay the minimum wage fixed by the law.
These remedies, which the court can employ in bringing succour to an oppressed employee, are available under the criminal jurisdiction of the court. Nevertheless, a persecuted worker may elect to invoke the civil jurisdiction of the court to enforce payment of the correct minimum wage and recover wages due to him illicitly withheld by his employer.
When some state governments were criticised for their failure to implement the erstwhile N30,000 minimum wage, their defence was that workers in the affected states voluntarily waived their rights to be paid the amount, in order to avert massive retrenchment of civil servants. To be perfectly frank, this defence is in collision course with the law. As, section 3(3) of National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act 2024, provides that “any agreement for payment of wages less than the national minimum wage is void”. Therefore, this time around, workers should resist any attempt to deprive them of their rights to be paid the legally approved national minimum wage.
In order to ensure that employers pay their workers the N70,000 minimum wage, the law enjoins employers to keep records of salaries and conditions of employment of their employers. Non-compliance with the requirement to keep such records is an offence punishable with payment of fine not exceeding N75,000 and further punitive penalty of up to N10,000 for each day the non-compliance continues. The watchdogs for compliance with the law are Authorised Officers employed at Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment and other officers employed in the Civil Service of the Federation and state Civil Service authorized by the Minister of Labour and Employment to ensure implementation of the law.
In the course of safeguarding obedience to the national minimum wage law, Authorised Officers are entitled to direct an employer to provide his records of wages and conditions of employment for inspection and examination, with a view to ascertaining whether the employer is in compliance with or defiance of the law. Where the Authorised Officer observes that the employer is in defiance of the law, he customarily instructs the employer to remedy the contravention within a specific period of time. In the event that the employer neglects to rectify the infringement, the Authorised Officer conventionally submits his findings of non-compliance to the Minister of Labour and Employment, most often, recommending prosecution of the culpable employer. In fact, the Minister of Labour and Employment routinely transmits the recommendation for prosecution to the Ministry of Justice being the Ministry in charge of prosecuting culprits.
Conversely, if an Authorised Officer discovers that an employer is paying his workers a lesser sum than the wage fixed by the law, the Authorised Officer’s recommendation might be, filing a civil lawsuit in the name of the disgruntled worker. The bottom line is that, upon receiving the findings of the Authorised Officer, the Minister of Labour and Employment should either transmit the findings of non-compliance to the Ministry of Justice for prosecution of the offender or file a civil lawsuit on behalf of the oppressed worker within 30 days.
Most often than not, criminal prosecution is utilised as a means of ensuring compliance with the law, if the culprit is a corporate organisation or an individual. But where the offender is a government’s institution, more especially State Government, criminal prosecution is not a feasible line of action. In view of the fact that, the Governor who has the final say on conforming with the national standard on minimum wage, is constitutionally immune to criminal prosecution. Hence, it is apposite to posit that if a state government is in dereliction of its duty to obey the law on minimum wage, a civil lawsuit should be instituted against the state government, albeit, by suing the Attorney General of the state, as the Attorney General is the medium by which the states government can sue or be sued.
Monguno is legal practitioner based in Mauduguri, Borno State
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