Minimum wage and my minimum needs; a battle for survival.

The issue of the minimum wage didn’t directly affect until 2015 when I started working officially. Even though my monthly pay was nothing to write about because I didn’t have the certificate needed to earn me the exact minimum wage, I stayed at the job anyway because even though the money was not enough to settle all my bills, it was better than having nothing to take home. At the time, the minimum wage of my dear nation was 18,000 naira only which was about $91HBD with the exchange rate at the time. The inflation rate at the time was about 9%.

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In 2019, the National Labour congress negotiated an increase in the minimum wage, and it was raised to 30,000 naira, equivalent to about $82HBD because the exchange rate increased as well as the inflation rate, so our buying power reduced and survival became a thing of struggle. We thought we had seen it all and that it wouldn’t get any worse.

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This is 2024, and the exchange rate has skyrocketed with a minimum wage of 30,000 naira still which is equivalent to $20HBD at the current exchange rate and with an inflation rate of over 30%. The situation of survival in my dear country now is critical. People can barely survive the day now, because the token they earned before now was not even sufficient to satisfy their basic needs talk more of having excess.

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There has been a struggle between the government and the National Labour Congress in a bid to raise the minimum wage to an amount worthy to at least cater for the workers’ basic needs. The government is negotiating an increase to 62000 naira only, which will be equivalent to $41HBD at the current exchange rate, however, the Labour Congress is saying No, but Yes to a minimum of 100,000 naira which will be equivalent to $67HBD. Even though none of this would be able to cater to the basic needs of the workers at the end of the month, it’ll still be something provided that the price of food items reduces.

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Pexels

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The current minimum wage workers receive at the end of the month has made a lot of workers turn corporate beggars because they need more than the $20HBD to survive. They have families, they have needs, even the unmarried ones find it difficult to plan around such an amount of money talk more the married. I earn a bit above that, and I know how much I struggle to create a budget around the amount I earn. Whenever I try to stock the house with foodstuff, the first thing I think of is going to the store to buy whatever it is my money could buy because budgeting seems impossible because the prices are definitely going to be higher than your budget.

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I’ve seen people take leftovers to eat, and I’ve watched pathetic videos where people had to sieve dirty meals to at least have something in their tummy because they don’t even earn enough.

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I understand that people are saying returning to farm would be the best solution to food price hike and then the money they earn can be used to sort other things, however, the current state of my dear nation chases people off the farm, so it makes it hard to turn to the farm for solution.

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I hate that I rant about this every day because there’s not much I could do to change the situation of the country. Rather, I try as much as possible to triple my hustle so that I can have more than enough no matter how hard the country may get. Hopefully, I don’t break down in the process.

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