The minimum wage should be set by the states Katsina Gov

Governor of Katsina State Dikko Radda has maintained that states ought to have the authority to set their own minimum wages, based on a federally-mandated minimum norm, given the variations in state-specific difficulties and income streams.

This was said by Governor Dikko during his Friday night guest appearance on Politics Today on Channels Television.

The PUNCH notes that the tripartite committee established by the FG received a proposal for a minimum salary of N615,000 last month from labor unions, the Nigerian Labour Congress, and the Trade Union Congress.

During the Workers’ Day celebration on Wednesday, the FG announced a 25 and 35 percent salary award for workers, which NLC President Joe Ajaero called “mischievous.” However, the government did not announce an increase in the minimum wage.

Dikko argued, however, that sub-nationals ought to be free to set their own minimum wage increases that the different states could manage.

In light of this, I believe that while it is acceptable for the federal government to set a minimum salary, sub-national governments ought to be free to set a fair minimum wage that local economies can support.

“That is my view and that is the view of some of our colleagues. Yes, we have agreed that there should be a minimum wage, but there should be a minimum standard within which the sub-nationals can address it”, he said.

The governor of Katsina state responded, “I don’t know what comes into the Edo state coffers, so the governor is at liberty to say whatever amount he can afford,” when asked if his state would choose to implement a minimum salary of N70,000 like some of its peers in Edo states.

He pointed out that some states were still unable to pay the N30,000 minimum salary, adding that the state’s exact ability to pay its employees would depend on its revenue and the quality of its civil service.

“For me to sit down here and tell you that this is the amount that I will agree to pay my civil servants, I cannot do it. Because we are running a government, we need to take this thing into executive council to sit down with all the important people in government, look at our revenue, look at our expenditure, look at the strength of our civil servants before we can conclude.

“You would remember that even the N30,000 minimum wage that was agreed upon over the years, there are some states that up till now, have not implemented the N30,000 minimum wage. So, we have to be very careful and look at it holistically so that we can address the issue appropriately,” he added.