TimesLive reports that the Pietermaritzburg Agency for Community Social Action (PACSA), which monitors food prices and wage movements, has proposed that the national minimum wage, currently under discussion, be set at R8‚000 a month.  

In its monthly food price barometer for May‚ the body argues that the current racial disparities in income and the number of people dependent on a single worker‚ require a national minimum wage which can defeat inflation and mitigate high levels of unemployment.  It wrote:  “The national minimum wage‚ albeit not the only instrument‚ could be a very important one to deal with our economic challenges.  We have proposed a National Minimum Wage of R8‚000‚ cost for a household of 5 persons‚ to provide the possibility of living at a basic level of dignity.”  Based on the “poverty data‚ social grants and other income” researchers at Wits University’s School of Economics and Business Science have estimated that a national minimum wage should be R4‚125.

• Read this report by Penwell Dlamini in full at TimesLive

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