Data Reveals 28 States May Struggle To Pay Proposed N62,000 Minimum Wage

Following the breakdown of negotiations between the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the Trade Union Congress (TUC) and the Federal Government over the proposed minimum wage, available data has shown that 28 states may be unable to pay the N62,000 the incumbent administration is proposing.

While the organised labour insists on a minimum wage of N250,000 at all levels, the FG says it can only afford to pay N62,000 from the current N30,000.
However, the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), said most of the states are not buoyant to pay the proposed wage of N62,000, a stance which the NLC and TUC say is not tenable.

However, data sourced from the 2023 budget implementation report for states, SFTAS annual performance assessment reports, the National Bureau of Statistics and BudgIT, shows that each state would have to negotiate its own minimum wage based on its economic realities. A blanket minimum wage is not feasible because of the horizontal fiscal imbalance among the 36 states.

Data shows that the total actual revenue for the 36 states for 2023 was N7.85 trillion and this figure includes revenue from the Federation Account Administration Committee (FAAC), Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), aids and grants. However, 15% of this amount was earned by Lagos alone, while 51% of the cumulative revenue went to the top 8 states – Lagos, Delta, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Oyo, Ogun and Ondo. As it is, only these eight states may be able to afford to pay N62,000.

The 2023 actual revenue (excluding loans) vs state revenue as a percentage of cumulative revenue of 36 states for Lagos is N1.18tn and 15.09%. This means that what Lagos earned in 2023 is 15.09% of the total N7.85 trillion earned by the 26 states.

Delta State earned N722.96bn, while the percentage for its cumulative revenue is 9.21%. For Rivers, the state earned N526.20bn and the percentage of the cumulative revenue is 6.70%. Akwa-Ibom, N469.66bn and 5.98%, Bayelsa, N363.55bn and 4.63%, Oyo, N266.01bn and 3.39%, Ogun, N247.90bn and 3.16%, Ondo N205.17bn and 2.61% and Edo N195.67bn and 2.49%.

Others are Kano, N193.94bn and 2.47%, Kaduna, 185.93bn and 2.37%, Anambra, N176.41bn and 2.25%, Kwara, N176.51bn and 2.25%, Jigawa, N174.94bn and 2.23%, Bauchi, N169.21bn and 2.16%, Kogi, N161.92bn and 2.06%, Benue, N159.27bn and 2.03%, Borno, N141.04bn and 1.80%, Katsina, N136.61bn and 1.74%, Plateau, N133.53bn and 1.70%, Gombe, N131.10bn and 1.67%, Osun, N130.14bn and 1.66%, Ebonyi, N128.87bn and 1.64%, Nasarawa, N127.93bn and 1.63%, Enugu, N126.64bn and 1.61%, Yobe, N126.02bn and 1.61%, Ekiti, N122.11bn and 1.56%, Sokoto, N121.72bn and 1.55%, Niger, N117.54bn and 1.50% Imo, N111.54bn and 1.42%, Kebbi, N110.08bn and 1.40%, Cross River, N109.12bn and 1.39%, Zamfara, N108.63bn and 1.38%, Adamawa, N103.19bn and 1.31%, Abia, 99.51bn and 1.27%, Taraba, 84.72bn and 1.08%.

In 2023, Kano State spent 40.91% of its revenue on personnel cost which includes salary, allowances, gratuity, pensions and death benefits, the highest among the 36 states. Kano is followed closely by Imo, (37.64%), Adamawa, (37.32%), Taraba (37.24%)Ogun (35.58%), Niger (35.34%), Oyo (35.22%), Kogi (35.12%), Sokoto (33.82%), Osun (33.37%), Cross River (33.31%), Enugu, (32.01%) Yobe (30.80%) and Katsina (30.04%).

Others are Nasarawa (29.96%), Ondo (29.92%), Edo (29.21%), Kaduna (29.00%), Jigawa (28.06%) Benue (25.35%), Bauchi (25.34%), Ekiti (25.13%), Rivers (25.13%), Plateau (24.79%), Kwara (24.56%), Zamfara (24.31%), Kebbi (23.89%), Gombe (23.64%) Borno (22.06%), Abia (20.04%), Delta (17.74%), Anambra (17.61%), Lagos (16.58%), Bayelsa (16.44%), Ebonyi (16.38%) and Akwa Ibom (15.57%).

The breakdown of 2023 personnel actual salaries, allowances, pensions and gratuity vs the number of personnel on state payroll and the monthly average personnel cost per state employee for Edo is N57.16bn for actual salaries, 14,857 for number of personnel (as at 2021) and N320,624 is the monthly average personnel cost per employee. For Lagos, N196.46 bn is the actual salaries, 69,102, number of personnel and N236,919 is the monthly average personnel cost per employee in that order.

Others are Nasarawa (N38.33 bn, 16,339 and N195,516), Oyo (N93.68 bn, 40,206 a s N194,161), Delta (N128.26 bn, 56,506 and N89,155) Bayelsa (N59.77 bn, 28,123 and N177,098), Kogi (N56.86 bn, 27,622 and N171,553), Ogun (N88.22 bn, 43,652 and N168,407), Rivers (N132.25 bn, 65,571 and N168,079), Jigawa (N49.09 bn, 26,549 and 154,077), Ondo (N61.38 bn, 35,502 and N144,085), Ebonyi (N21.11 bn, 12,290 and N143,133) Niger (N41.54 bn, 24,322 and N142,313), Benue (N40.38 bn, 24,438 and 137,709), Akwa Ibom (N73.11bn, 45,395 and N134,208), Imo (N41.98 bn, 26,434 and N132,346), Osun (N43.43 bn, 27,349 and

N132,338), Gombe (N30.99 bn, 19,939 and N129,536), Cross River (N36.35 bn, 24,681 and N122,742), Yobe (N38.82 bn, 27,085 and N119,429),

Bauchi (N42.87 bn, 30,156 and N118,466), Kwara (N43.35 bn, 31,479 and N114,746), Plateau (N33.10 bn, 24,252 and N113,746), Katsina (N41.04 bn, 30,454 and N112,305), Enugu (N40.54 bn, 32,776 and N103,063), Anambra (N31.06 bn, 25,501 and N101,492), Sokoto (N41.17 bn, 36,438 and N94,146), Kaduna (N53.91 bn, 47,726 and N94,133), Ekiti (N30.69 bn, 27,891 and N91,689), Zamfara (N26.41 bn, 26,658 and N82,552), Abia (N19.94 bn, 20,355 and N81,629), Adamawa (N38.51bn, 40,089 and N80,054), Borno (N31.11 bn, 32,492 and N79,798), Kebbi (N26.30 bn, 27,938 and N78,440),

Kano (N79.35 bn, 87,612 and N75,473). Taraba’s total personnel actual salaries for 2023 is N31.55 bn, while the total annual personnel annual cost for the 36 states is N1.94tn. The total number of personnel for 35 states besides Taraba is 1,162,922, while the total average monthly personnel cost for 35 states is 4,735,160.