The Federal Government has warned private-sector employers paying below the new seventy thousand-naira minimum wage to desist from the act.
Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, Alhaji Ismaila Abubakar, gave the warning while speaking at the thirteenth Annual General Meeting of the Employers Association for Private Employment Agencies of Nigeria, held in Lagos.
Abubakar, represented by the Director of Employment and Wages of the ministry, John Nyamali, said the minimum wage is now a law and therefore, it is a punishable crime for any employer to pay less than seventy thousand naira to any of its workers.
The director said the private employment agencies should make it compulsory in any contract they take from their principal that their workers should not earn less than the minimum wage.
He further explained that the least paid worker in Nigeria should earn seventy thousand naira after all deductions.