Ebun Francis|
The house of representatives on Tuesday passed the bill raising the national minimum wage.
The house passed the bill at plenary after considering the report of its ad hoc committee.
It will be recalled that the tripartite committee set up by the federal government had approved the sum of N30,000 minimum wage for workers but the federal executive council accepted that for its workers but, however, approved N27,000 for state civil servants.
But while considering the bill, the lawmakers resolved to leave the national minimum wage “as recommended by the tripartite committee”.
The committee had approved N30,000 for both federal and state workers.
The lawmakers also resolved that the bill would be effective the day it is assented to by the president.
They also increased the penalty for failure to pay the minimum wage from N5,000 to N75,000.
The passage comes about a week after President Muhammadu Buhari sent the wage bill for consideration.