The Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) has urged the Federal Government to consider increasing workers’ salaries without waiting for another review of the national minimum wage, arguing that the existing wage framework does not prevent employers from paying more.
TUC President Festus Osifo stated the position in Abuja after a meeting of the labour centre’s National Administrative Council.
Osifo said the government could independently improve the salaries of federal workers or increase the pay of the lowest-paid employees without waiting for a new Minimum Wage Act.
He argued that the national minimum wage should be treated as a statutory floor rather than a ceiling restricting how much employers can pay their staff.
The position comes amid continued pressure on workers’ purchasing power as households contend with the cost of food, transportation, accommodation and other essentials.
For public-sector employees, salary adequacy has become an important part of the debate over how the government should respond to economic hardship. Labour organisations have repeatedly called for measures that protect workers’ real incomes as prices rise.
The TUC’s argument is that salary improvements do not necessarily have to wait for the next statutory wage review. An employer can choose to pay above the legal minimum, subject to applicable laws, budgetary constraints and the relevant employment arrangements.
Any broad increase in federal workers’ pay, however, would require consideration of its fiscal implications, funding arrangements and the relationship between salary adjustments and other public expenditure commitments.
The union’s intervention places renewed pressure on the government to consider whether existing pay levels adequately reflect the cost of living.
The key question is whether the government will adopt additional measures to improve workers’ earnings and, if so, how any increase would be funded and implemented across the public service.