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| Photo by Oyemike Princewill on Unsplash |
The salary alert came in at 5:43 a.m.
I was already awake. Not because I had somewhere important to be. Not because I had slept enough.
I was awake because rent was due in four days.
I stared at the message for a while.
₦120,000.
For a moment, I felt relief. The kind that never lasts long.
My name is Daniel. Three years ago, I graduated from university. I remember the photographs from that day. The smiles. Congratulations. The promises people made about the future.
"You have made it."
"Your life is about to begin."
"Just get a good job."
I believed them.
Now, I work as an administrative officer in a private company in Lagos.
Every weekday, I leave home before sunrise.
Every weekday, I return after dark.
Every weekday, I am tired enough to sleep without dinner.
Still, every month feels like a race I cannot win.
I sat up and opened my banking app. The salary was there. The deductions would come next.
Rent.
Transport.
Electricity.
Internet.
Food.
My younger sister's school expenses.
Before spending a single naira on myself, most of it already belonged to something else.
I left for work at 6:15 a.m. The bus stop was crowded. People stood quietly, waiting. Most of us were dressed the same way—office clothes, identity cards hanging from our necks, phones in our hands.
Working people.
Educated people.
People doing everything they were told would lead to a better life.
The fare had increased again. Nobody complained. Complaining does not lower prices.
At the office, conversations sounded familiar. Someone was looking for a cheaper apartment. Someone else was talking about food prices. Another colleague was searching for a second job.
We laughed where we could. It was easier than admitting we were worried.
During lunch break, I checked my budget again. I removed a few things. Added others. Removed them again. The numbers still refused to cooperate. Somewhere between the calculations, I realised something: I was budgeting for survival.
Not for growth.
Not for savings.
Not for investment.
Not for the future.
Just survival.
Eight hours later, I left the office. The traffic was worse than usual. By the time I got home, the power supply had gone out again. I sat in the dark and looked at my phone. The salary alert from the morning was still there. The number looked smaller now. Not because money had left the account.Because I already knew where it was going.
I thought about university. About all those years spent studying. About the belief that hard work would be enough.
I still believe in work.
I still believe in education.
But lately, I have started to wonder why they no longer seem enough on their own.
Tomorrow morning, I will wake up early again. I will join thousands of others on crowded roads. I will go to work. I will do my job. And like many people around me, I will continue searching for a life that always seems one salary away.
A life that work was supposed to provide.
***
Working poverty refers to a situation in which individuals are employed yet remain unable to achieve a basic standard of living for themselves and their families. It challenges the common belief that employment alone is enough to escape poverty.
Across many communities, people wake up every day, travel to work, complete long hours, and contribute to the economy, yet still struggle to afford essential needs such as housing, food, healthcare, education, and transportation. Rising living costs, stagnant wages, insecure employment conditions, and limited social protection systems continue to widen the gap between work and economic security.
For many workers, a salary no longer guarantees stability. Instead, it often becomes a monthly cycle of difficult choices—between rent and savings, healthcare and groceries, transportation and education. These challenges are not the result of a lack of effort. Rather, they reflect broader structural inequalities that prevent work from translating into financial well-being.
This reality lies at the heart of Sustainable Development Goal 1 (No Poverty), particularly Target 1.2, which seeks to reduce by at least half the proportion of men, women, and children living in poverty in all its dimensions according to national definitions by 2030.
At Shades of Us, we believe that no one who works hard should remain trapped in poverty. We call for policies that promote decent work, fair wages, stronger social protection systems, affordable healthcare, accessible education, and economic opportunities that allow workers not only to survive, but to thrive.
We further urge governments, employers, civil society organizations, and development partners to address the growing reality of working poverty through inclusive economic policies that place human dignity at their centre.
Ending poverty is not simply about creating jobs. It is about ensuring that work provides a pathway to security, opportunity, and a life of dignity. No effort to achieve SDG 1 can succeed if millions of workers continue to labour every day without being able to meet their most basic needs.
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