<p>Minimum Wage or Living Wage? Rethinking Wage Adequacy and Decent Work in Nigeria</p>

This article examines Nigeria's minimum wage regime through the lens of wage adequacy, decent work and labour governance. It argues that the legal significance of a minimum wage is not exhausted by the declaration of a statutory figure; the true test is whether the wage functions as an enforceable income floor capable of protecting workers against working poverty while remaining economically sustainable. Nigeria's National Minimum Wage Act, 2019, as amended in 2024, raised the national minimum wage to N70,000 and reduced the review cycle from five years to three years. That reform was important, but it does not resolve deeper questions of adequacy, coverage, enforcement, informality, state-level implementation, productivity and social protection. Drawing on ILO minimum wage standards, international human rights instruments, Nigerian labour legislation, inflation and poverty data, and contemporary policy materials, the article contends that Nigeria should move from a narrow statutory minimum wage model to a living-wage-sensitive minimum wage framework. This does not require adopting a single rigid living wage figure in place of the national minimum wage. Rather, it requires wage fixing and review to be guided by evidence on the needs of workers and their families, the cost of living, social security, productivity, enterprise sustainability and employment effects. The article proposes a reform agenda built around an independent wage adequacy methodology, periodic inflation-sensitive review, stronger labour inspection, public wage-compliance reporting, protection for outsourced and casual workers, MSME-linked compliance support, and social wage measures in transport, housing, health and food security. It concludes that Nigeria's wage debate must move beyond the politics of headline figures to a governance model that makes wage protection real in the workplace.