Buhari signs new minimum wage bill

President Muhammadu Buhari has signed the new minimum wage bill into law.

The bill, which has now become a law, will usher in a new pay structure for Nigerian workers.

Buhari signs new minimum wage bill

The National Assembly had passed the bill approving N30,000 as the minimum wage for workers.

State governors had opposed the N30,000 minimum wage with many of them saying they will be unable to pay their workers N30,000 minimum wage.

Mr Buhari’s aide on National Assembly Matters (Senate), Ita Enang, told journalists that the president has signed the minimum wage bill into law.

Mr Enang, who briefed State House correspondents after meeting Mr Buhari , said the new law has N30,000 as minimum wage for Nigerian workers.

He also said implementation of the new law starts immediately.

Mr Enang said the signing of the bill into law now “makes it compulsory for all employers of labour in Nigeria to pay their workers the sum of N30,000.”

The presidential aide, however, said employers with less than 25 workers are excluded from paying the new wage.

He said workers of “a ship which sails out of the country and other persons who are in other kinds of regulated employment which are accepted by the act” are also excluded from the new wage.

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Mr Enang said with the new law, workers now have the right to sue their employers who fail to pay them the new minimum wage. He said the act empowers the Minister for Labour or his representative to act in the case of such denial of the new wage.

The National Assembly passed the minimum wage bill on March 19 and it was transmitted to Mr Buhari on April 2