Today's Labour News

Solidarity on Tuesday strongly condemned the new national minimum wage of R23.19 per hour, as announced by Employment and Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi.  

According to the trade union, the minister would have had a much more positive effect on the labour market and the economy if he had scrapped the minimum wage altogether. Theuns du Buisson, economic researcher at the Solidarity Research Institute, commented: “While the economy is still struggling to recover from the devastating impact of Covid-19 and the implementation of some of the most stringent lockdown measures in the world, it is absurd to increase our already irrational minimum wage by more than the inflation rate.” He went on to explain: “The labour market is like a ladder that one climbs throughout your career. We would like everyone to reach the top of that ladder. However, the minimum wage does not propel anyone to a higher rung on the ladder. It only prevents those standing on the floor from getting the chance of climbing onto the bottom few rungs of the ladder.” According to Du Buisson, a further worrying consequence of the higher minimum wage could be an increase in xenophobia and illegal labour practices because the minister was making it increasingly expensive for employers to legally employ South Africans. He also contended that by exempting Extended Public Works Programme workers, who will only be entitled to R12.75 per hour, the government itself demonstrated the counter-productiveness and harmfulness of the minimum wage. “Solidarity has always been of the opinion that the best way to ensure better wages is to acquire better skills and to gain experience. Regulations such as these will prevent people from gaining experience because there will now be even fewer jobs for new entrants to the labour market,” Du Buisson concluded.

• Read Solidarity’s press statement in the above regard at Politicsweb

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