Agenda 2023: On Average Wage and the Stage of Rage
The minimum wage remains fixed despite rising cost of living (inflation) and unemployment. It increased from N18,000 in 2018 to N30,000 in 2019 and has since remained at that.
The fact that Secondary School Certificate holders form the majority of the labour force makes this condition a general labour problem because these are the group paid the minimum wage and less.
Many State Governments are even opposed to paying the minimum wage of N30,000 despite being much lower than the living wage.
Generally, the level of compliance with fundamental labour laws in Nigeria has declined from a score of 3.5 of 10 in 2015 to 2.9 of 10 in 2018.
Source: Statista
For workers outside government employment and employees of industries without trade unions, their minimum wage is not even regulated. Thus they are exploited and paid wages lower than the low minimum wage.
While the average wage of Nigerian employees are low, there is a further disparity between the average wage and the minimum wage, leading endangered workers in the rural areas and their encumbered colleagues in the urban areas towards a stage of rage.
This rage takes on a rabid turn when compounded by the 9.8 million unemployed persons, a 15.2% of the 64.48 million (64,479,317) labour force in 2021. Presently, crimes of unprecedented magnitudes ravage the country.
Nigeria currently experiences the highest levels of insecurity in the rural and urban areas. While economic and financial crimes are rife in the urban areas, acts of terror and killings are more common in the rural areas.
Source: Premium Times Twitter Poll
Peculiar to the rural areas are crimes such as terrorist’s attacks and takeover of large swaths of land, kidnapping, bandit attacks on intercity travellers through the rural areas, and worse still, attacks on rural farmers.
The attacks and killings of rural farmers caused higher employment in the rural areas than the urban areas since.
Average Wage
As of 2021, the average value of the output of each Nigerian employee (GDP per person employed) was 7.94 million naira per annum (N7,944,233 or $18,060 at 439.88 Naira to a US Dollar as of 3rd November 2022).
On a monthly basis, this is equivalent to 662,000 Naira (N662,019) worth of output produced or income generated.
“GDP per capita is a measurement of the GDP per person in a country’s population. It indicates that the amount of output or income per person in an economy can indicate average productivity or average living standards.”
Thus, the average value of output per Nigerian employee typically approximates the average income/wage of each employee.
Source: World Bank
However, the minimum wage has remained N30,000 per month, a 2,120% deviation from the mean wage of N662,000 per month.
Thus, the minimum wage is below the living wage of N43,200 per employee and far below the average wage of 662,000. The situation is worse for workers who have households. They need a living wage of N137,000 to cater for their household, even though they earn N30,000.
This serious income disparity exacerbates poverty, hunger, desperation and crime in the city and in the country.
Stage of Rage
Besides the poorly remunerated junior employees in Nigeria, another 6.3 million people (46% of Nigeria’s working-age population age 15+) are unemployed.
This puts more people in the poverty trap, with over half (54%) of the urban population living in slums.
Nigeria’s poverty headcount ratio of 30.9% persons living below $2.15 or N946 daily in 2018 has worsened with an estimated 42.6% living below the national poverty line in 2022.
Increasing rates of financial crime and internet crime in the urban areas together with unabating killings and kidnaps in the rural areas shows the people are ebbing closer to the stage of rage, howbeit, criminal.
Age of Rage
While other demographic groups battle with earnings below the living wages, young people are the most hard-hit by the unemployment situation in the country. This predisposes the youth population to deeper levels of rage.
While the general unemployment rate stands at 9.79%, youth unemployment stands at 19.67%. Also, 21.4% of youth were not in education, employment or training as of 2016, the same level with 2013.
While offering effective career guidance as a panacea to youth unemployment, Beatrice Ifeoma Ajufo noted that “Unemployment has become a major problem bedevilling the lives of Nigerian youth, causing increased militancy, violent crimes, kidnappings, restiveness and socially delinquent behaviour.
She submitted that “Youth unemployment is devastating to both the individual and the society as a whole both psychologically and economically.
A Global Development Commons document published by UNICEF noted that youth unemployment is a global problem.
621 million young people aged 15-24 years old are not in education, employment or training*.
75 million young people are trained but have no job.
In the next decade, one billion young people will enter the labour market, and large numbers of young people face a future of irregular and informal employment.
Almost 90% of all young people live in developing countries.
Youth are approximately three times more likely to be unemployed than adults (2.7).
The International Labour Organization (ILO) estimates that the global youth unemployment rate is expected to reach 13.1% in 2016 (71 million young people) and remain at that level through to 2017 (up from 12.9% in 2015).
It is estimated that 23% of young people currently employed in the world earn less than $1.25US a day**.
Source: UNICEF
The PLAN document further outlined its unique approach to youth economic empowerment. This is summarised below:
Situational Analysis
Strategic partnerships and alliances
Pre-training activities
The mix of employment and entrepreneurial pathways to decent work
Post Training and placement support
Post placement support
The Governments at all levels, local, state and federal, would do well to employ these best practices to maximise economic and social advantages of the country’s teeming youth population and reduce youth restiveness.