 Leaving wages, what do Nigerians need? The question of leaving wages is arguably an interesting one in Africa and more so in a country like Nigeria, but then what do we mean by leaving wages? According to Investopedia, a leaving wage refers to a theoretical income level that allows individuals or families to afford adequate shelter, food and other necessities. The goal of a leaving wage is to allow employees to earn enough income for a satisfactory standard of living and prevent them from falling into poverty. Economists suggest that a leaving wage should be substantial enough to ensure that no more than 30% of it gets spent on housing and this amount will often be substantially higher than the legal minimum wage. However, there are various arguments for and against a leaving wage narrative. Those that are in support of leaving wages argue that paying employees higher salaries offer benefits to the company as staff are more satisfied and this reduces staff turnover. Other benefits would include high morale of the staff which in turn results in more productive staff as well as increased output from the staff of the company. When turnovers are reduced, the company does not have to engage in expensive recruitment and frequent training or retraining of new staff. The workflow is also seamless and company culture can be preserved but those who are not in favour of leaving wages say that the implementation of a leaving wage creates a wage flow which harms the economy eventually. Also fewer employees are hired if the company has to pay higher wages and the end result is higher unemployment because you have dead weight loss and people who would willingly have worked for less than a living wage will not be given an opportunity to get the job. Now away from the arguments for and against, what does the law have to say about leaving wages? In Nigeria what we have prescribed is a requirement to pay minimum wages which is not even fully implemented by organisations. There are however different international instruments on the issue of leaving wages some of which are one the universal declaration of human rights which was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly on 10 December 1948 and in article 25 it states, everyone has a right to a standard of leaving adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family including food, clothing, housing and medical care and necessary social services and the right to security in the event of employment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond his control. Other instruments that talk about leaving wages include the ethical trading initiative based code which is widely acknowledged as a model code of labour practice and is derived from the conventions of the International Labour Organization ILO. We also have the International Labour Organization ILO C131 minimum wage-fixing convention 1970 number 131 as well as the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. So why is the issue of leaving wage rising on the global agenda? One, there is a rising phenomenon of the working poor. That is working people who are unable to make ends meet because wages are too low. Two, there is the issue of the increasing gap between national minimum wages and cost of leaving which is not going anywhere anytime soon. Then three, we have the continued development of international standards for business and ethics which is changing the dynamics of human dignity. At the end of the day, however, it's really maybe not just about the money, but about the choices that money allows you to have. My questions then are, do Nigerians need a living wage or a minimum wage? If we do need a living wage, is this a possible reality? I think I will die doing first. We first need to live because the first word of the phrase is living, then wage. So in terms of what we need in Nigeria, the government should just help us assist us, make sure that we are alive. If they can guarantee that, then we cannot talk of the wage. The minimum wage that is prescribed by the minimum wage act today is not even enough to make you live. The 30,000 dollar cannot buy a bag of rice. And if bag of rice is the only thing you're going to buy, you need a lot of things to iterate, to make it consumable. Now, the standard, the life itself, the quality of life is reducing by the day. So the place to start from is even because expect to wake up tomorrow, then food is the next thing and I love food so much. It's not showing. It's not showing. Food security all over the country, when we are able to tackle that security of life and property, then food security so that whatever you earn, you are sure you have something to feel your belly. I think the issue of minimum wage and living wage, in my humble estimation, when you look at minimum wage, it tells you the least amount someone of a particular pay grade can. Rather educational qualification or whatever the metrics are for determining your entry level or the level you can rise to in your career. The very least amount you can earn based on the certification you have. But I would say a living wage has more to do with what offer you bring to the table. It's not really limited to your educational qualification, but rather it looks at your standard of living, the barest essential that you need to have. So in a sense, you see Nigeria we're still grappling with so much, even the minimum wage has not been ratified by all the states. There are several reasons why different state governments are arguing that they can't pay the wage. Even those that have agreed to pay the wage that seem able to pay the wage. And not even doing it and the wages are not coming as at when due. So it's all of this falls back to entrepreneurship development, in my honest opinion. Those should be able to rise up and look within, discover what traits, talents and abilities they have. And then plan strategically how to translate those from ability to monetize services. That would I mean just loosen you up financially and make you not dependent so to speak on a system for daily bread, whether it's a place of employment or government policy. And even as an entrepreneur, government policy does have an impact on your ability or the scale at which you earn and all of that. So really, I would say it's an egg and chicken analogy situation if you will. If I'm going to add to this, I think that the minimum idea of minimum wage was not supposed to limit the potential or the capacity of the citizens. It was basically to ensure that at least there's a standardization of some sort. Now, there are many things to consider here. First of all, inflation. And if you look at the last two, three years, inflation is now double digits. So if you were buying a bag of rice for 9000 Naira, you're almost buying times two now. So there are other things we're dealing with. But the minimum wage or the living wage is not rising just as high as the inflation in the price. Exactly. So there is an erosion of value, right? But one thing is that we know government can't buy themselves, create jobs. We've always advocated and enabling environments to allow for the jobs. So an entrepreneur today can't even get access to capital. It's the seabed and giving loans. You bet you need collateral. It's the bank of industry giving loans. You bet you need collateral. And how many Nigerian businesses truly genuinely can afford to collateral? Except for the big guys who have been in oil all our lives. And again, so we can't necessarily begin to talk about living wage when the circumstances of the environment that can allow for the living wage is not even there. And then with one of my greatest challenge is looking at how much the governor's end for security votes, how much the National Assembly and the House of Representatives... We did go there, right? It's such a bloated... No, it's such a bloated figure. Those guys are robbing us in daylight. But at the end of the day, they will struggle to approve a 30,000 Naira minimum wage. But they are going home with an entire local government budget every month. It's security. It's really what it is. So my own particular advocacy is that when are we going to wake up and attack this bloated government and let them end like civil servants? I'm Alison Ferdinand that those are your views. And now Ferdinand is telling us to prepare for a post-all economy after this break.