EDITORIAL: Living Or Minimum Wage

THE new tripartite committee set up to review the minimum wage has its work cut out for the nation is at a historic juncture. Food price inflation is unacceptably high and the currency’s exchange rate is in turmoil.

The government in our season of discontent has correctly aligned itself to the position of a living wage as opposed to the jaded even discredited concept of a minimum wage and this is to be supported. The old interpretation of a minimum wage no longer protects the weakest social sectors in a period of high inflation and perennial currency turmoil. A new interpretation must be agreed upon by the tripartite committee. For a start, they must accept that inflation is a punitive tax on the weakest and the most vulnerable.

The review must be all encompassing. The living wage must be focused on the overall wellbeing of the average Nigerian worker. This is the new thinking the world over. Unfortunately, Nigeria is far behind and sadly is now the poverty capital of the world.

We have to bring Nigeria up to speed. For example, there must be emphasis on the attainment of universal health insurance. It is only through the attainment of universal health insurance coverage that we can upgrade our health facilities and retain vital health personnel at home and access to education which must be reflective of new technology and prepare the students for the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution heralded by Artificial Intelligence. This as well as the provision of social housing must be the engine room of the living wage effort. If this is done, it will guarantee acceptable living standards, increase productivity and become the pathway to sustainable development. 

By now we ought to have learnt lessons about the pure emphasis on just monetary awards. It is an illusion as the Udoji Awards showed in the seventies. A living wage must now be used as the bedrock for a new economy and enhanced living standards. It must also be used to create a stakeholders’ democracy.

For example, the British democracy is admirably based on home ownership as it’s foundation.

We wish the committee thoughtful as well as expeditious conclusion of their very important mission.