NATIONAL MINIMUM WAGE QUANDARY FOR NIGERIAN DOMESTIC WORKERS: UNVEILING THE MANIFOLD SOCIAL INJUSTICE AGAINST THESE VULNERABLE WORKERS

Minimum Wage and Domestic Workers in Nigeria

Authors

  • Dr. John Oluwatomisin AKINSELURE Lecturer, Commercial and Industrial Law Department, Faculty of Law, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State
  • Dr. Levi Pius BOLARINWA Lecturer, Private Law Department , Faculty of Law, Federal University, Oye, Ekiti State
  • Dr. Alaba Ibironke KEKERE Senior Lecturer, Faculty of Law, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko
  • Opeyemi Victor Ogunremi Doctoral Candidate (Akungba)
  • Oreoluwa DAHUNSI Undergraduate Law Student, Faculty of Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko, Ondo State

Keywords:

Social Justice,, Minimum Wage, Domestic Workers, Vulnerable Workers, Labour Rights

Abstract

Economic hardship and drastic decline in workers’ living conditions are some of the reasons which necessitated the upward review of the minimum wage of Nigerian workers. In spite of the recent increment in wages, Nigerian domestic workers are implicitly excluded from enjoying the approved minimum wage despite the fact that they work for extremely long hours in their employers’ homes. This article examines the myriad of social injustice that Nigerian domestic workers currently face due to their indirect exclusion from the national minimum wage in Nigeria. This article contends that the extant legal framework on national minimum wage in Nigeria has further accentuated social injustice against domestic workers in Nigeria. In contrast, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) have severally advocated for the inclusion of domestic workers in minimum wage protection, yet Nigeria does not include domestic workers in her minimum wage coverage. But some countries such as Namibia, South Africa, India among others have extended minimum wage protection to domestic workers in their jurisdictions. In these countries, social justice is promoted for domestic workers thereby obviating the quandary which Nigerian domestic workers experience.in respect to minimum wage. The writers adopt doctrinal and comparative research methodology in interrogating the discourse. The writers found out that domestic workers are still subjected to social injustice occasioned partly by the application of the 2024 National Minimum Wage Amendment Act and the National Minimum Wage Act, 2019. The writers also discovered that the extant law on National Minimum Wage is inadequate to promote social justice for the domestic workers This article recommends that Nigeria needs to domesticate and implement the ILO Convention No. 189 so as to promote social justice for these categories of vulnerable workers.

Downloads

Published

2026-08-28

Issue

Vol. 15 No. 1 (2025): University of Ibadan Law Journal

Section

Articles