CHAPTER ONE
1.0Â INTRODUCTION
Salaries as a form of social security against old-aged poverty and other uncertainties have great interest virtually everywhere in the world, both in developed and developing countries, in recent times. Salaries programs especially those that are publicly financed and administered, have become an issue of concern to economists, policy makers and the general public for effective implementation. This is not only because such programs are central to the well-being of the salariesers and the elderly, but also, the majority of salaries programs are not actuarially balanced (that is, they are not financially stable), and as such, they are run at deficits, thus making the present values of their future liabilities to be enormous.
The present civilian administration extended its form programs to the administration of salariess in the public service. The reform holds an overall objective of reorganizing the salaries scheme and the various institutions charged with the administration of salaries in Nigeria. The reform overhauled the entire machinery of the salaries system through a holistic redefinition of its essence, as a mechanism of participatory savings for the proverbial rainy day.
Salaries scheme is a transfer programs that serves as a channel for redistributing income to the elderly or retirees, after a stipulated number of service years. A salaries is usually a regular payment made by the government or private companies or organizations to their retirees, as a form of social security against old-aged risks and uncertainties. In addition, salaries scheme/programme are also used to promote a saving culture among current employees, and this stimulates saving.
Nigerian salariesers are suffering badly from the stings of the problem of public salaries scheme, which was largely governed by salaries decree No.102 of 1979. It has features persistent problems in recent times, especially in civilian regime. Some of the problems are:
i.                   The dependency of salaries scheme and the erratic budgetary allocation to the federal government.
ii.                 The untimely release of salaries scheme.
iii.               The untimely release of salaries funds which affects the payment of salaries benefit and other retirement benefits
iv.               A huge accumulation of salaries liabilities, among several others.
The present salaries reform, repeated the previous salaries Act No.102(cap 346) of 1979. It replaced it with salaries reform Act 2004 , as amended in 2014 which gives legal backing to the reform specifically by sec,11(5) of salaries reform Act 2004,as amended in 2014 employers are required to deduct from source the monthly contributions of their employees and remit same together with their position, directly to the account designed by salaries fund administration(PFA). Remittance of work must be made within seven (7) working days from the date of payment of salary of employees. Failure to comply with the requirement, constitute an offence under sec.11 (7) and 89 of the salaries reform Act 2004 as amended 2014.
Finally, a greater importance has been given to salaries and gratuity by employers because of the belief that if employees future needs are guaranteed, their fears ameliorated and properly taken care of, they will be more motivated to contribute positively to organizations output. Similarly various government organizations as well as labor union have emphasized the need for sound, good and workable salaries scheme.
