Wage increase: Reps opposition caucus pledges support for “living wage”

The Minority Leader, House of Representatives, Rep. Kingsley Chinda (PDP-Rivers), says the opposition caucus will support the quest for payment of a living wage to Nigerian workers.

Chinda made the promise while addressing journalists on Tuesday in Abuja.

He said that no lawmaker was happy over the current hardship faced due to economic down turn, saying that receiving living wage would ameliorate the sufferings of workers in the country.

According to him, the caucus was pushing for a living wage for all the Nigerian workers; ‘a take-home pay that could actually take a worker home.’

“We are very disturbed by the turn of events; the rising inflationary rate in the country has had negative effects on the cost of living with the galloping inflation that cuts across all facets of life.

“As representatives of Nigerians, we are very disturbed, and would not rest on our oars until there is a permanent solution.

“Trade Economics in 2018 pegged the living wage for an individual Nigerian and a Nigerian family at N43,200 per month and N137,600 respectively,’’ he said.

He noted that the above figures were pre-subsidy removal prediction, saying, “presently, no labourer could live in Nigeria with a wage less than N100,000 monthly.”

Chinda said that a recent World Bank report, suggested that the low purchasing power in the country occasioned by high inflationary rate, had led to an increase in poverty across the country.

The opposition leader assured Nigerians that the resolutions reached by the assembly had been activated and that the adhoc committee would transmit outcome to the Senate for speedy concurrence.