An ARDL Bound Approach to the Nexus of Minimum Wage Increase and Economic Growth in Nigeria

Abstract

his study examined the impact of the national minimum wage on economic growth in Nigeria. The Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL) model of econometric technique was employed to analyse the data, keeping GDP as the dependent variable and minimum wage as the independent variable. The study revealed that increment in minimum wage was positive and significant in both the long and short run to GDP, implying that an increase in minimum wage will raise the economic growth rate. Therefore, the three tiers of government and the private sector in Nigeria should implement and upgrade to the new National Minimum Wage of N30, 000 to improve the income and capacity of low-skilled employees to enhance their economic growth.