The senator representing Edo North senatorial district, Adams Oshiomhole, has said his cleaner is paid a salary of not less than N60,000 monthly.
Gists9ja reports that the lawmaker knocked the current monthly minimum wage of N30,000 in the country while describing it as a criminal wage.
He observed that the average responsible private-sector employer in the country is a better employer than the Federal Government or state government.
He says, “What we call minimum wage is a criminal wage.”
Oshiomhole, who made the submission during a live appearance on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, stated that “If you exchange N30,000 at N800 or N700 to the dollar, what does that translate to? So, the value of that minimum wage when it was N125 – when it was first introduced under, I think, (Shehu) Shagari’s government – is about two times or three times the value many years later, even in the public service.
“I can tell you what I have decided to pay my cleaner. My cleaner is just a primary school – I’m not sure she has even a school leaving certificate. But she’s knowledgeable enough to clean the house.
“I found myself unable to pay her less than N60,000 – in fact, N60,000. It’s about my conscience. I’m trying to imagine what she has to pay for a house. She told me she has four children.
“I’m trying to imagine how she has to look after those children, and I cannot question why she should have four children.”
The lawmaker further noted that he understands the cost of living and couldn’t have decided to pay less than that “in a clean conscience.”
Speaking further, Oshiomhole said, “If I have chosen to employ a cleaner and chosen not to clean the house by myself, that is the least I thought I could pay.
“If I do that to my cleaner, I have to do a little more to my driver because he requires some training and, sometimes, even retraining, and my security is in his hands.”
(Gistnja)