Members of House of Representatives on Tuesday set the new National Minimum Wage as N30,000.

They reached the decision a day after conducting a public hearing on the bill for a new national minimum wage.

Lawmakers at the Tuesday plenary considered the report of the ad hoc committee that looked at the bill clause by clause.

Passing the bill for the third reading on Tuesday, lawmakers unanimously approved the N30,000 recommendation by the committee in consonance with the resolution by tripartite committee set up by President Muhammadu Buhari.

Mr Buhari in a letter read to the lawmakers by the Speaker, Mr Yakubu Dogara, urged amendment of the National Minimum Wage Amendment Act 2011 to raise the minimum wage payable to a Nigerian worker from N18,000 to N27,000.

A tripartite committee set up by the government recommended N30,000, but the Council of State later accepted that figure for federal workers and recommended N27,000 for state and private sector workers.

Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), however, rejected the N27,000 and insisted on N30,000 as the minimum for all workers.

Lawmakers also resolved that the bill would be effective the day it is assented to by the president.

They also increased penalty for failure to pay the minimum wage from N5,000 to N75,000.

Senate is expected to concur with recommendations of the House when it returns from the elections break before transmitting it to the president.

PT