By Milcah Tanimu

Eight months after the Federal Government began paying a wage award of N35,000 in addition to the N30,000 minimum wage to federal workers and encouraged state governments to follow suit, 20 states have yet to implement this measure. Out of these, 15 states have never paid the wage award, while seven states paid briefly and then stopped.

The wage award was introduced to alleviate economic hardship for workers pending the implementation of a new minimum wage. However, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has criticized the failure of some states to provide this financial relief, calling it a severe display of insensitivity given the difficult conditions workers face due to government policies perceived as anti-poor.

Among the 36 states, 15 are currently paying their workers wage awards or salary increments ranging from N10,000 to N40,000. The states not paying the wage award include one in the South-East, four in the South-South, three in the North-East, two in the North-Central, and five in the North-West. States that initially paid the wage award for a period ranging from one to four months but subsequently ceased include Delta, Niger, Plateau, Kaduna, Bauchi, and Nasarawa.

Conversely, the states that are continuously paying the wage award are Lagos, Edo, Bayelsa, Imo, Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi, Ondo, Osun, Ogun, Oyo, Ekiti, Kano, Kwara, Cross River, and Taraba.

The NLC has voiced strong concerns over the impact of these decisions on workers, emphasizing the urgent need for all state governments to address this issue and provide much-needed economic relief to their employees.