The National Minimum Wage Commission has proposed a 1% above inflation increase in the national minimum wage.
This follows president Cyril Ramaphosa’s promise to women voters – a better minimum wage for domestic workers, ahead of the November 2021 municipal elections.
This newly proposed minimum wage adjustment could leave domestic workers as big winners, due to the minority view from three commissioners proposing a 1.5% increase above inflation.
The Department of Employment and Labour is seeking public comment on the National Minimum Wage Commission’s proposals.
Currently, domestic workers earn R19.09 per hour, while the national minimum wage is R21.69 per hour. That is because the Minimum Wage Act set the rate for domestic workers at 75% of the national minimum wage in 2020 and 88% in 2021.
However, the idea remains always to equalize it to 100% of the national minimum wage in 2022.
Statistics South Africa, put the lowest food poverty line at R624.00 per person, per month or R2 188.00 for the average-sized household of three to four people in April 2021.
With that in mind, the proposed minimum wage seems adequate in ensuring that workers and their families don’t go to bed hungry.
However, many workers spend better half of their wages on transportation costs to and from work, leaving considerably less to spend on food, especially where the household has one breadwinner.
The Commission also acknowledged that the inflation for low-income households is significantly higher than for the upper-income group.
Source: Fin24
