By Harriet Tornguvan
Wale Edun, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, has submitted various options for a new national minimum wage along with their projected cost implications to President Bola Tinubu.
Following President Tinubu's directive on Tuesday, Edun was tasked with preparing a proposal for a new minimum wage figure, including an analysis of the associated costs, to be delivered within 48 hours.
On Thursday, Edun delivered the report at the presidential villa in Abuja. He was accompanied by Mohammed Idris, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, and Atiku Bagudu, the Minister of Budget and National Planning.
In the submitted report, Edun detailed several potential new minimum wage levels and their anticipated fiscal impacts on the federal budget.
This initiative is a significant step in the ongoing discussions about establishing a new national minimum wage, which has been a prominent issue recently.
On Monday, labor organizations proposed new minimum wage figures of N615,500 and N494,000, which the government deemed unrealistic.
In response, the federal government announced on the same day that President Tinubu had committed to implementing a national minimum wage higher than N60,000.
This decision was one of the key outcomes of a meeting between the federal government and organized labor held at the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation on Monday.
Today, the tripartite committee, consisting of representatives from the federal government and labor unions, resumed discussions on the new national minimum wage.
