Are you exempted from minimum wage?

Since the year 2024, minimum wage has been an issue that has continued to dominate discourse in Nigerian society. And there have been questions on who qualifies for minimum wage and who doesn’t qualify. Like all fundamental issues, there are laws and regulations guiding the issue of minimum wage and its application.

In 2019, the National Minimum Wage Act was passed and it provides that the minimum wage was to be reviewed by the Federal Government every five years; the year 2024 was when the five-year period on the last increment elapsed.

Situations around the issue led to signing into law, the new Minimum Wage Act 2024 which reduced the number of years for the periodic review of the National minimum wage from five years to three years.

This Act applies to all employees; private and public and any employment agreement for the payment of wage less than the national minimum wage is void. There are however four exceptions; any establishment in which workers are employed or paid on part-time basis, commission or piece-rate, an establishment employing less than 25 persons; workers in seasonal employment like agriculture and any person employed in a vessel or aircraft to which the laws regulating merchant shipping or civil aviation apply.

But where an employer fails to comply with the new national minimum wage requirement, his/her employee, a trade union and/or Minister of Labour and Employment may enforce the provisions of the Act against such employer. The employee may take his case directly to the National Industrial Court or may file a formal complaint with the Minister of Labour and Employment.

Also, trade unions may demand compliance with the provisions of this Act, on behalf of their members and shall not later than 30 days from the receipt of the workers complaint, file a claim against the employer at the National Industrial Court.

Failure to comply with the provisions of the National Minimum Wage Act is an offence, punishable upon conviction to; a fine not exceeding 5% of the offender’s monthly wage; all outstanding arrears of the workers’ wages; and an additional penalty of not less than the prevailing Central Bank of Nigeria lending rate on the wages owed for each month of continuing violation.

In addition, all employers are required by the Act to keep records of wages or conditions of employment of their employees to show that the provisions of the Act are being complied with in respect of workers. These records are to be retained for a period of at least three years, failure of which would attract penalties.

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