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More than two years after Nigeria’s 2019 Minimum Wage Act became law, labour leaders in Kogi State are preparing to do battle with the government over their refusal to implement it, The News reports.
The minimum wage in the State is N18,000 rather than the N30,000 approved by the Federal Government. The news comes as a comparative analysis on minimum wage by Picodi.com has revealed shocking data about living conditions in Nigeria.
The global study pointed out that the Nigerian minimum wage is not enough to pay for a modest basket of shopping. Prompting concerns that living conditions will be significantly worse in places where the wage regime is not known.
Nigeria reportedly comes last among the surveyed countries and earns the worrying conclusion that its national minimum wage cannot meet the basic living condition, (i.e food) of an average adult, per month.
Picodi - an e-commerce platform - released its findings on January 21 in a detailed report. The report covers 64 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America. The analysts explored how the minimum wage rates have changed in those countries and whether such amounts can ensure a minimum standard of living.
The study highlighted that the included countries have different tax policies. In some, for example, a person earning the minimum national wage is exempt from income tax and contributions (Hong Kong, Philippines, Nigeria), while in others the difference between gross and net income may be as high as several dozen per cent.
“For this reason, the list only includes net amounts, i.e. money that the employee receives in cash or on his bank account.” The report clarifies. Its findings are detailed below:
Of the 64 countries included, the minimum wage rates in 10 countries have not changed since the previous year. These include Israel, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Peru, and Slovenia. (At the time of writing this report, the final amount has not been ultimately accepted.)
The highest increase in the minimum wage was recorded in Montenegro. As a result of favourable tax changes, among other reasons. The country of former Yugoslavia increased to $514 net (up 103 per cent). Major minimum wage increases were also noted in Argentina (55 per cent), Turkey (50 per cent) and Kazakhstan (41 per cent).
Nigeria came in 55th place in this ranking; its minimum wage did not change in January 2022. In the US, the minimum wage increased by 4.1 per cent year on year (39th place), in South Africa by 4.7 per cent (36th place) and in the UK by 5.9 per cent (33rd place).
Basic food
For this study, a contractual list of basic food products was compiled and the prices of these products were compared with the minimum wage. The list consists of 8 product groups: bread, milk, eggs, rice, cheese, meat, fruits, and vegetables. The list is very limited, however, in the amounts indicated, these products are sufficient to meet the minimum nutritional requirements of the average adult:
Milk (10 liters) – ₦11,470
Bread (10 loafs 500 g each) – ₦4,310
Rice (1.5 kg) – ₦1,470
Eggs (20 pcs.) – ₦1,120
Cheese (1 kg) – ₦1,950
Poultry and Beef (6 kg) – ₦9,790
Fruits (6 kg) – ₦4,680
Vegetables (8 kg) – ₦6,190
The value of basic food products at the beginning of 2022 is ₦40,980. Compared to the beginning of 2021, the price of the products has increased by 15.89 per cent.
Basic food sufficient to meet the minimum nutrient requirements is worth 136.6 per cent of the minimum wage. A year ago, these products were worth 117.9 per cent of last year’s minimum wage. This means that the prices have risen faster than the minimum wage.
Where is the minimum wage sufficient for living costs?
Since food preferences and perceptions of a comfortable life vary from region to region - and even from person to person - it was reportedly decided to compare the prices of basic food products with the minimum wages to see how much of the minimum income a person must spend on necessary products.
The top countries in this ranking are the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia: the ratio of basic products to the minimum wage ranges from 6.6 per cent to 7.3 per cent.
The situation for minimum wage earners in Russia, Kazakhstan, or India is challenging: in these countries, the minimum cost of basic food products consumes around half of their salary.
In this ranking, Nigeria was placed last out of 64 countries with a result of 136.6 per cent. Therefore the minimum wage is not even enough for a modest basket of products. Canada placed 7th (9.8 per cent), the US came 13th (12.2 per cent) and South Africa was 48th (36.0 per cent).
Methodology and data sources
The study compared the monthly minimum wage for full-time work in January 2022 with wages from January 2021. These rates come from official government websites, relevant ministries or committees. Countries where the minimum wage is negotiated by individual trade unions; and countries where there is no statutory minimum wage (such as Switzerland, Italy, Singapore, and northern European countries); were omitted. For countries where the minimum wage differs by region (USA, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam), Picodi.com calculated and used the arithmetic mean of all regions. The net amounts were obtained using local salary calculators.
The set of products used in the study is a contractual list of basic food products, created for statistical purposes only. The amounts given have been calculated based on recommendations of some health ministries regarding the minimum standards of food consumption. The prices of the contractual food products come from the portal numbeo.com, where consumers around the world monitor the prices of food and other products and services.
Picodi converted the local currencies using the average Google Finance exchange rate for the fourth quarter of 2021.
The full report is available here
Source: The News
(Links via original reporting)
More than two years after Nigeria’s 2019 Minimum Wage Act became law, labour leaders in Kogi State are preparing to do battle with the government over their refusal to implement it, The News reports.
The minimum wage in the State is N18,000 rather than the N30,000 approved by the Federal Government. The news comes as a comparative analysis on minimum wage by Picodi.com has revealed shocking data about living conditions in Nigeria.
The global study pointed out that the Nigerian minimum wage is not enough to pay for a modest basket of shopping. Prompting concerns that living conditions will be significantly worse in places where the wage regime is not known.
Nigeria reportedly comes last among the surveyed countries and earns the worrying conclusion that its national minimum wage cannot meet the basic living condition, (i.e food) of an average adult, per month.
Picodi - an e-commerce platform - released its findings on January 21 in a detailed report. The report covers 64 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North and South America. The analysts explored how the minimum wage rates have changed in those countries and whether such amounts can ensure a minimum standard of living.
The study highlighted that the included countries have different tax policies. In some, for example, a person earning the minimum national wage is exempt from income tax and contributions (Hong Kong, Philippines, Nigeria), while in others the difference between gross and net income may be as high as several dozen per cent.
“For this reason, the list only includes net amounts, i.e. money that the employee receives in cash or on his bank account.” The report clarifies. Its findings are detailed below:
Of the 64 countries included, the minimum wage rates in 10 countries have not changed since the previous year. These include Israel, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Peru, and Slovenia. (At the time of writing this report, the final amount has not been ultimately accepted.)
The highest increase in the minimum wage was recorded in Montenegro. As a result of favourable tax changes, among other reasons. The country of former Yugoslavia increased to $514 net (up 103 per cent). Major minimum wage increases were also noted in Argentina (55 per cent), Turkey (50 per cent) and Kazakhstan (41 per cent).
Nigeria came in 55th place in this ranking; its minimum wage did not change in January 2022. In the US, the minimum wage increased by 4.1 per cent year on year (39th place), in South Africa by 4.7 per cent (36th place) and in the UK by 5.9 per cent (33rd place).
Basic food
For this study, a contractual list of basic food products was compiled and the prices of these products were compared with the minimum wage. The list consists of 8 product groups: bread, milk, eggs, rice, cheese, meat, fruits, and vegetables. The list is very limited, however, in the amounts indicated, these products are sufficient to meet the minimum nutritional requirements of the average adult:
Milk (10 liters) – ₦11,470
Bread (10 loafs 500 g each) – ₦4,310
Rice (1.5 kg) – ₦1,470
Eggs (20 pcs.) – ₦1,120
Cheese (1 kg) – ₦1,950
Poultry and Beef (6 kg) – ₦9,790
Fruits (6 kg) – ₦4,680
Vegetables (8 kg) – ₦6,190
The value of basic food products at the beginning of 2022 is ₦40,980. Compared to the beginning of 2021, the price of the products has increased by 15.89 per cent.
Basic food sufficient to meet the minimum nutrient requirements is worth 136.6 per cent of the minimum wage. A year ago, these products were worth 117.9 per cent of last year’s minimum wage. This means that the prices have risen faster than the minimum wage.
Where is the minimum wage sufficient for living costs?
Since food preferences and perceptions of a comfortable life vary from region to region - and even from person to person - it was reportedly decided to compare the prices of basic food products with the minimum wages to see how much of the minimum income a person must spend on necessary products.
The top countries in this ranking are the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia: the ratio of basic products to the minimum wage ranges from 6.6 per cent to 7.3 per cent.
The situation for minimum wage earners in Russia, Kazakhstan, or India is challenging: in these countries, the minimum cost of basic food products consumes around half of their salary.
In this ranking, Nigeria was placed last out of 64 countries with a result of 136.6 per cent. Therefore the minimum wage is not even enough for a modest basket of products. Canada placed 7th (9.8 per cent), the US came 13th (12.2 per cent) and South Africa was 48th (36.0 per cent).
Methodology and data sources
The study compared the monthly minimum wage for full-time work in January 2022 with wages from January 2021. These rates come from official government websites, relevant ministries or committees. Countries where the minimum wage is negotiated by individual trade unions; and countries where there is no statutory minimum wage (such as Switzerland, Italy, Singapore, and northern European countries); were omitted. For countries where the minimum wage differs by region (USA, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam), Picodi.com calculated and used the arithmetic mean of all regions. The net amounts were obtained using local salary calculators.
The set of products used in the study is a contractual list of basic food products, created for statistical purposes only. The amounts given have been calculated based on recommendations of some health ministries regarding the minimum standards of food consumption. The prices of the contractual food products come from the portal numbeo.com, where consumers around the world monitor the prices of food and other products and services.
Picodi converted the local currencies using the average Google Finance exchange rate for the fourth quarter of 2021.
The full report is available here
Source: The News
(Links via original reporting)