Oyo workers’ salaries jerk up govt’s wages by 86% to N11.9bn

….N80,000 minimum wage increases expenditure

The salary and wages of Oyo State workers will increase by 86% from January 2025, Dotun Oyelade, Commissioner for Information and Orientation has said, explaining that the payment of N80,000 new minimum wage by the State Government will increase the monthly salaries from N6.4 billion to N11.9 billion, amounting to N143 billion, annually.

Oyelade, who stated this when he received Kayode Martins, Oyo State Chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), in his Office in Ibadan, added that Governor Seyi Makinde is determined to cater for the welfare of workers while not compromising the welfare of the generality of the people and the critical sectors.

He said Governor Makinde proactively announced a four-year promotion of workers in order to avert the promotion crisis that had been on the ground before he came into office in 2019.

Responding, Kayode Martins, the Oyo State NLC Chairman, said the ₦80,000 minimum wage and its consequential adjustments in Oyo State would be more favourable to workers across all grade levels when compared to other States including the Federal Government.

Martins said that Governor Seyi Makinde, whom he referred to as “Workers’ Governor,” had been consistent in his love for workers.

Oyo was the first State to implement the old ₦30,000 minimum wage and also started negotiating a new minimum wage with labour leaders even before the Federal Government approved the ₦70,000 minimum wage.

According to the labour leader, while the Federal Government added ₦40,000 across the board for its workers as consequential adjustments, Ogun State added ₦42,000 across the board on its consequential adjustments to the new minimum wage, Oyo which has the largest number of workers in the Southwest and just concluded the process of recruiting 23,000 more workers to the State workforce, has done more for its workers.

He said the present Oyo State table sees the movement of workers on grade levels 1 to 6 from ₦30,000 to ₦80,000, translating to a ₦50,000 increment on the salary scale.

He said level 7 and above would enjoy increments of ₦70,000, ₦80,000, ₦90,000 and even over ₦180,000 being added to workers salaries on the consequential adjustment table.

The graphic implication of this, for instance, would be that the Government worker on Grade Level 17 earning ₦170,000 per month would be earning ₦360,000.