The Senate on Tuesday speedily passed the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 (Amendment Bill).
The bill, which advanced through second and third readings just minutes after being transmitted by President Bola Tinubu, was promptly approved by the upper chamber.
Following a unanimous vote after a clause-by-clause review in the Committee of the Whole, the National Minimum Wage Bill successfully passed its third reading.
Earlier in the day, President Tinubu sent the National Minimum Wage Bill to the National Assembly for consideration and passage.
He separately requested that both the Senate and the House of Representatives expedite the bill to amend the National Minimum Wage Act, 2019, increasing the minimum wage from ₦30,000 to ₦70,000.
Additionally, the President asked lawmakers to shorten the interval for periodic reviews of the minimum wage from five years to three years and address related issues.
Last Thursday, Tinubu and the leadership of the Organised Labour agreed on ₦70,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.
This agreement followed a series of discussions between labour leaders and the President over recent weeks, after months of failed negotiations between labour unions and a tripartite committee on minimum wage established by the President in January.
The committee, comprising state and federal governments and the Organised Private Sector, had proposed ₦62,000, while labour unions had demanded ₦250,000 for workers who currently earn ₦30,000.
Labour had argued that ₦30,000 was unsustainable for workers due to inflation and the high cost of living following the removal of the petrol subsidy by the President.
Despite initially demanding ₦250,000 as the new minimum wage, Labour accepted the President’s offer of ₦70,000 last Thursday. Joe Ajaero, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), stated that Labour agreed to ₦70,000 while rejecting a proposal by President Bola Tinubu to set the minimum wage at ₦250,000 contingent on raising petrol prices.
Ajaero also noted that Labour accepted the ₦70,000 offer because it included a reduction in the review interval from five years to three years.
The transmission of the wage bill occurred about six weeks after President Tinubu announced in his Democracy Day speech on June 12, 2024, that an executive bill for the new national minimum wage would be presented to the National Assembly for passage.