No decision yet on the National minimum wage

The Federal Executive Council met today in Abuja but could not reach decision on the contentious National minimum wage. According to the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, the federal Executive Council had to step down decision on the minimum wage to allow the President make further consultations.

In todays meeting, a report by the tripartite committee made up of representatives of local government, the States , NLC/ TUC and the Federal Government was submitted and considered

It would be recalled that while labor demanded N615,000 monthly minimum wage, they have since scaled this down to N250,000. The Government had before now proposed the sum of N62,000 which labor rejected outright.

Some States and Government functionaries had contended that agreeing to labors demand will cripple their States and the entire economy while labor has responded that such assertions are wrong as the cost of living and inflation demands that the take home pay for workers should be able to cater for their basic needs which N62,000 can barely cover in a week.