Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki increased the state’s minimum wage from N40,000 to N70,000.
The governor made the news during the inauguration of the state’s newly constructed ultra-modern Labour House headquarters complex for labour unions, located on Temboga Road in Ikpoba-Hill, Benin City.
According to him, the new wage comes into effect on May 1st, 2024.
This is as the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) battles the Federal Government over increasing the minimum wage to match increasing national inflation and skyrocketing food inflation.
The inflation rate for March 2024 hit 33.2 per cent from 31.70 per cent in February, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Food inflation also rose to 31.7 per cent in March from 30 per cent in February.
The NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC), had demanded N615,000 as the new minimum wage for workers in the country.
The labour unions’ agreement was after President Bola Tinubu, through Vice President Kashim Shettima, on January 30, set up a 37-member panel at the Council Chamber of the State House in Abuja.
With its membership cutting across federal and state governments, the private sector, and organised labour, the panel was tasked with recommending a new national minimum wage.
At the inaugural meeting of the panel, Shettima urged members to ‘speedily’ arrive at a resolution, and submit their reports early as the current N30,000 minimum wage expired at the end of March 2024.