46 out of each 100 Nigerian workers earn below ₦200,000 ($150) monthly, in keeping with a new salary report by PaidHR, a Nigerian human assets and payroll startup.
The report gives a visible of what employers pay staff in Nigeria’s formal labour market. PaidHR stated it analysed payroll information for greater than 25,000 workers throughout over 400 Nigerian employers, utilizing a July 2026 snapshot of energetic staff on its platform.
The findings present a large hole between the decrease and higher ends of the wage scale. Of each 100 workers within the dataset, 46 earn below ₦200,000 ($150) a month, whereas 10 earn a minimum of ₦1 million ($751.93).
“The shape of the distribution suggests that Nigeria’s formal workforce is not one evenly distributed middle class; it is increasingly a two-tier labour market,” Seye Bandele, PaidHR’s co-founder and chief govt officer, advised TechCabal in an interview. “A large group is clustered around relatively low wages, alongside a much smaller professional group earning substantially more.”
Nigeria’s labour power participation fee rose to 79.5% in Q2 2024, and formal employment accounts for about 7.0% to 7.3% of the overall employed workforce. However, solely a fraction of the workforce earns a daily wage from an employer, in keeping with the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). For these workers, earnings rely upon their job, expertise, industries, and the way their employers worth their abilities.
The report’s anchor is the median, the employee standing within the center when each wage earner is lined up from lowest paid to highest. That employee earns ₦217,000 ($163.17) in monthly gross and takes residence ₦199,972 ($150) after deductions, comparable to pension contributions, revenue tax, and different payroll deductions.
At the underside of the dimensions, the report famous that 10 out of each 100 workers within the dataset earn below ₦70,000 ($52.64), Nigeria’s nationwide minimal wage, signed into regulation in 2024.
As Nigeria’s cost of living increases, gas costs have pushed up transport prices, whereas meals, lease and electrical energy payments compete for a share of monthly revenue. Inflation has eased from its current peak, however decrease inflation doesn’t imply costs have returned to the place they have been earlier than.
The report’s findings additionally query the worth of sustained loyalty to a single employer. Career development has been constructed round accumulating expertise that may ultimately result in larger pay. PaidHR’s knowledge suggests wage development is strongest throughout the first few years with an employer, earlier than slowing down.
Workers with lower than a 12 months at their present job earn a median wage of ₦181,235 ($136.28). Pay rises with tenure and peaks across the five-year mark, when the center employee earns about 47% greater than somebody at entry stage. After that, the features change into a lot much less constant.
PaidHR’s report describes this because the five-year wall. It is the purpose at which staying longer with an employer now not delivers the identical wage features as within the early years.
“The interesting thing is that experience itself stops being enough to generate significant salary growth,” Bandele stated. “The report’s explanation is that the market regularly reprices jobs, but employers do not necessarily reprice their existing employees at the same pace. As a result, someone who stays in the same organisation can become underpaid relative to what the market is willing to pay for their experience.”
An worker who joined an organization 5 years in the past could have acquired annual raises, however a brand new rent getting into the identical position is being recruited on the present market fee. If the market has moved sooner than the corporate’s wage critiques, the brand new worker can arrive on a wage that the present employee has taken years to achieve.
PaidHR argues that this creates an incentive for workers to look outdoors their present organisations when they need a big wage improve, as workers could discover larger wage features by altering employers or transferring right into a higher-paying trade.
The report means that two workers with related abilities and expertise can earn very completely different salaries as a result of their employers function in markets with completely different capacities and willingness to pay.
“Where you work changes what you earn as much as what you do,” Bandele stated.
PaidHR’s sector knowledge reveals that the center wage in fintech and expertise is ₦418,916 ($315), in contrast with ₦80,000 ($60.15) in retail, hospitality and leisure. Banking, lending and monetary companies sit at ₦230,491 ($173.31), whereas healthcare and prescribed drugs have a center wage of ₦169,423 ($127.39).
The hole means that workers with related abilities could have very completely different incomes prospects relying on the industries wherein they work. Nigeria’s expertise and fintech corporations have attracted substantial enterprise funding over the previous decade, serving to some employers construct merchandise and compete for specialised expertise in a worldwide market. However, the funding doesn’t mechanically translate into larger salaries.
The report additionally identifies a gender hole. The center girl within the dataset earns ₦192,089 ($144.44) a month, in contrast with ₦238,103 ($179.04) for the center man. That means ladies earn about 81 kobo ($0.00061) for each ₦1 ($0.00075) males earn on the center of the wage scale. The report doesn’t set up the causes of the hole, however the variations inside particular person corporations counsel that it can’t be defined solely by women and men working in several industries.
Taken collectively, the findings counsel that workers’ positioning within the labour market shapes wage development. Experience issues, nevertheless it might not be sufficient to safe larger pay; abilities matter, however the identical talent can command completely different salaries in several industries, whereas staying with an employer can change into pricey if wage critiques don’t maintain tempo with the market.
PaidHR’s forecast tasks that the center wage might rise from ₦217,000 ($163.17) in 2026 to ₦380,000 ($285.73) by 2030, assuming annual wage development of roughly 15%. Still, a better wage doesn’t equate to larger buying energy. If the costs of meals, transport, housing, and different necessities rise as quick as, or sooner than, wages, workers could earn extra with out with the ability to afford rather more.
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