Despite the signing of New Minimium Wage into law by President Muhammadu Buhari, employers with less than 25 workers are excluded from paying the new wage.
Mr. Ita Enang, Senior Special Assistant to the President on National Assembly (Senate), who briefed State House correspondents after meeting the president on Thursday, said the employers are exempted from paying it.
According to him, “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.
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.”
He said the new law has N30,000 as minimum wage for Nigerian workers, while the implementation of the new law starts immediately.
The presidential aide said with the new law, workers now have the right to sue their employers who fail to pay them the new minimum wage.
Enang further 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 new Minimum Wage Bill into law on March 19 and transmitted it to President Buhari on April 2, 2019 for assent.
