The senator representing Edo North senatorial district, Adams Oshiomhole, has described the N30,000 minimum wage in the country as “criminal wage”, saying he pays his cleaner over N60,000 monthly.
Oshiomhole, who is a former President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), said this on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics programme.
“If I have chosen to employ a cleaner and chosen not to clean the house by myself, that is the least I thought I could pay.”
“What we call minimum wage is a criminal wage. If you exchange N30,000 at N800 or N700 to the dollar, what does that translate to?
“So, the value of that minimum wage when it was N125 – when it was first introduced under, I think, (Shehu) Shagari’s government – is about two times or three times the value many years later, even in the public service,” the senator said.
He said it was worrisome that the average worker in the private sector earns better than those in the civil service.
“I can tell you what I have decided to pay my cleaner. My cleaner is just a primary school – I’m not sure she has even a school leaving certificate. But she’s knowledgeable enough to clean the house.
“I found myself unable to pay her less than N60,000 – in fact, N60,000. It’s about my conscience. I’m trying to imagine what she has to pay for a house. She told me she has four children.
“I’m trying to imagine how she has to look after those children and I cannot question why she should have four children,” Oshiomhole said.
According to the federal lawmaker, N30,000 minimum wage will not “deliver a comfortable living standard, but what you call irreducible minimum for her to survive.”
“If I do that to my cleaner, I have to do a little more to my driver because he requires some training and sometimes, even retraining, and my security is in his hands,” he stated.