The Edo North Senator, Adams Oshiomhole has described the N30,000 minimum wage as a “criminal wage” stressing that his cleaner earns over N60,000.

The former Edo State governor stated this during an interview with Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

Oshiomhole said: “If I have chosen to employ a cleaner and chosen not to clean the house by myself, that is the least I thought I could pay.

“What we call minimum wage is a criminal wage. If you exchange N30,000 at N800 or N700 to the dollar, what does that translate to?

“So, the value of that minimum wage when it was N125 – when it was first introduced under, I think, (Shehu) Shagari’s government – is about two times or three times the value many years later, even in the public service.”

Oshiomole added that average private-sector employee is a better employee than the Federal Government or state government.

He said, “I can tell you what I have decided to pay my cleaner. My cleaner is just a primary school – I’m not sure she has even a school leaving certificate. But she’s knowledgeable enough to clean the house.

“I found myself unable to pay her less than N60,000 – in fact, N60,000. It’s about my conscience. I’m trying to imagine what she has to pay for a house. She told me she has four children.

I’m trying to imagine how she has to look after those children and I cannot question why she should have four children.”

Speaking further, Oshiomhole said “N30, 000 minimum wage will not necessarily deliver a comfortable living standard, but what you call irreducible minimum for her to survive.

“If I do that to my cleaner, I have to do a little more to my driver because he requires some training and sometimes, even retraining, and my security is in his hands”.