No. Employees who earn the national minimum wage or less are exempt from PAYE by law, a separate protection from the general tax-free threshold everyone else compares their pay against. This guide does not restate today's minimum wage figure itself, since that comes from separate legislation, not the tax facts behind this series.
What it can say precisely is where the general tax-free line sits for everyone earning above minimum wage, and what happens on either side of it.
Where the tax-free line sits
Separately from the minimum-wage exemption above, ₦800,000 is the amount of taxable income anyone can have in a year before PAYE applies at all. For example, spread evenly across twelve months, that works out to roughly ₦66,667 a month.
This is taxable income, not gross pay. Most employees have a pension contribution deducted first, commonly 8% of monthly emoluments, so a gross wage somewhat above that rough monthly figure can still land tax-free once pension is taken off. The PAYE calculator applies that rate to gross pay by default.
Comparing it with a low wage
If a low earner's actual monthly pay is known, it is straightforward to check: multiply it by twelve, and compare the result with ₦800,000. Below that figure, there is nothing to pay. At or just above it, only the excess is taxed.
This guide cannot do that comparison for you without restating the minimum wage figure itself, which sits outside the facts it draws on. The comparison is simple enough to do directly once you know your own yearly pay.
An example just above the line
Say a yearly gross wage comes to ₦900,000. An 8% pension contribution of ₦72,000 brings taxable income to ₦828,000, a little above the tax-free amount. Only the ₦28,000 above the line is taxed, at 15% on income from ₦800,001 to ₦3 million, coming to ₦4,200 for the year. The rest stays free.
This is why crossing the line is not a cliff edge. A low earner just above it pays a small amount, not a rate applied to their whole income.
Why this question comes up so often
Pay at the lower end of the scale is exactly where a tax-free threshold matters most. A relatively small change in pay, a raise or a new allowance, can be the difference between staying under ₦800,000 and moving just above it.
That is also why the comparison is worth doing carefully, rather than assuming a low salary is automatically tax-free. Some low earners sit just above the line, not below it, once bonuses or allowances are added to base pay for the year.
What this guide doesn't tell you
It does not tell you today's national minimum wage, and it does not guess at one. If you need that figure, it is set under separate legislation and is worth checking directly rather than assuming it here.
Where to check your own number
The PAYE calculator applies ₦800,000 and every band above it to any salary you enter. For the full ladder, see the 2026 PAYE bands explained, and for the rest of this series, the PAYE and state tax hub. If pay varies month to month, add up the actual year so far rather than assuming one typical month represents the whole year.