By Jemimah Wellington, JKNewsMedia Correspondent
NIGERIA’S NEWLY enacted minimum wage of N70,000 has been described by the United States (US) government as insufficient to lift millions of citizens out of poverty.
The position was contained in the 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, released on 12 August 2025 by the US Department of State.
The report stated that the wage, currently valued at about $47.90 per month, had been heavily eroded by the devaluation of the naira.
According to the document, enforcement of wage laws remains weak across the country. It outlined that the law provided for a national minimum wage applicable to both public and private sector employers with 25 or more full-time employees, excluding seasonal agricultural workers, part-time employees, those on commission, and certain other categories.
The report recalled that the National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act 2024 had doubled the minimum wage to N70,000. Despite the increase, the State Department noted that the effect of currency devaluation meant the wage level was no longer above the poverty income threshold.
The US government further observed that many employers maintained workforces below the 25-employee threshold, leaving the majority of workers outside the legal framework.
It also noted that some states had declined to implement the wage law, citing financial constraints.
Provisions of the law included a 40-hour workweek, entitlement to between two and four weeks of annual leave, and entitlement to overtime and holiday pay, although agricultural and domestic workers were excluded.
The document also stressed that the law did not define premium pay or overtime.
For civilian government employees, excessive compulsory overtime was expressly prohibited.
On enforcement, the report said the federal government rarely applied minimum wage, overtime, and Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) laws.
It highlighted that penalties attached to such violations were low compared with other crimes such as fraud and were rarely enforced.
Responsibility for enforcement was vested in the Ministry of Labour and Employment, but the report stated that the number of labour inspectors remained insufficient to ensure compliance.
While inspectors were legally empowered to make unannounced visits and impose sanctions, most complaints were required to be filed before the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, limiting the scope of enforcement.
The report also highlighted the scale of informality in the country’s workforce.
It estimated that between 70 and 80 percent of Nigerians worked in the informal economy, where wage, hour, and OSH laws were not enforced. Part-time workers similarly operated outside the scope of inspections.
The US government concluded that weak implementation, the narrow coverage of the law, and widespread informality continued to limit the effectiveness of Nigeria’s minimum wage policy.
