KEHINDE AKINTOLA Abuja
Nigeria’s House of Representatives on Tuesday passed through third reading, the bill which seeks to raise the national minimum wage from N18,000 to N30,000 per month to the least paid worker in the country.
The bill was passed after the consideration and adoption of the Ad-hoc Committee’s report on National Minimum Wage Act, 2019, chaired by Yussuff Lasun (APC-Osun).
The bill is expected to be transmitted to the Senate for concurrence.
All the clauses of the bill were adopted by the lawmakers.
However during the consideration of the bill, some lawmakers expressed concerns over the timing of signing the bill into law and the take-off of the new salary regime.
While giving a synopsis of the report, Lasun who doubles as the Deputy Speaker, observed that Federal Government agreed to pay N30,000 minimum wage to federal workers.
He also noted that it was discovered that the Executive bill needed not too many adjustment.
He however raised concerns over the fate of employers with less 25 workers who were exempted forĀ the new wage.
He also noted that the tax aspect of the new wage needed to be examined as certain wage brackets that would henceforth increase to N200,000 and above would be required to pay tax.
“So tax authorities should see if succor could be provided for certain levels of workers,” he added.
While ruling Speaker Dogara said: “This is the House of the people and this is the way businesses should be and we have effectively passed it subject to the passage of the Senate unless there are issues which may require a conference Committee.”
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