Between ‘minimum wage’ and ‘living wage’
Akeem Lasisi
One of the burning issues on our national scene is the need to increase workers’ salaries. Labour has continued to put pressure on governments, especially the federal, for increment in the face of the inflammable inflation the country is experiencing. So tough have things become that Tokunbo (imported second-hand) cars that many middle-class folks used to embrace, like the type that cost around N2m each, have become largely unaffordable. Now you need up to N7m for the same brand. How many low and mid-level civil servants can afford this if they don’t have supplementary earnings, including access to forbidden funds in certain cases?
Well, we are not holding a workers’ rally in this class today. Rather, we are examining two terms that are recurrent in the debate over the desired increment in remuneration. These are ‘minimum wage’ and ‘living wage’. While government has been talking more of a minimum wage of recent, labour seems to be shifting emphasis to a living wage. What is then the difference between them?
To begin with, wage is defined as a fixed regular payment earned for work or services typically paid on a daily or weekly basis. Minimum wage, according to Cambridge Dictionary, is the smallest amount of money that employers are legally allowed to pay someone who works for them. On the other hand, living wage ‘is enough money to buy the things that are necessary in order to live, such as food and clothes’. Based on this definition, it will be a tough task to strike an agreement on what a living wage is. For instance, health, children education, housing etc. can be proved to be basic necessities. But will employers see them so? senior guys.
Staff
Meanwhile, we are also using this opportunity to remind ourselves about the correct usages of some common labour-related terms that are usually mishandled. For instance, because ‘staff’ refers to all the workers in an organisation, an individual should not be called a ‘staff’:
Wrong: Mr Gabriel is a staff of FAAN.
Correct: Mr Gabriel is an employee/worker/official of FAAN.
‘Staffer’ is also a correct word in the context but it is American. Besides, it is more associated with military and media personnel. Note that ‘personnel’ should also be treated as ‘staff’. It means all or the body of workers in an organisation or department. No one person is, therefore, a personnel:
Wrong: Joe Ajaero was a personnel of NEPA when I first met him.
Correct: Joe Ajaero was an employee of NEPA when I first met him.
Payslip
The paper that an employee receives at the end of the month, showing details of their payment, including deductions., is called ‘payslip’ or ‘pay slip’. This should not be confused with pay-in slip (two words), which is the one you fill in the bank when depositing money:
Wrong: The cashier refused to give me another payslip after I mistakenly tore the one he initially gave me.
Correct: The cashier refused to give me another pay-in slip after I mistakenly tore the one he initially gave me.
