Fin24 reports that on Monday, the National Minimum Wage Commission gazetted a new medium-term target for the minimum wage, fulfilling a legislative requirement for such a roadmap.
The plan had been to consider the national minimum wage (NMW) in terms of living standards and link it to wages in general, so that those earning the minimum wage would, at the very least, not fall behind increases in pay across the economy. But the commission has now explicitly linked the target to the consumer price index (CPI), saying it will increase the minimum wage gradually in real terms. The target is still also linked to other wages, as well as to living standards, as had been the plan in December – but with a change in priority. The full, final medium-term target for the NMW reads as follows: “All wage-earning workers should earn a wage sufficient to maintain a decent standard of living, defined as sufficient to support themselves and their families at a level that is both socially acceptable and economically viable. The target will ensure that the value of the national minimum wage does not decline relative to the median wage. To achieve this target, the Commission will increase the value of the minimum wage gradually over time in real terms (that is, relative to CPI).” In February, Labour Minister Thulas Nxesi decreed a 9.6% increase in the NMW, to R25.42 per hour, well ahead of annual inflation of 6.9%. The increase, effective from March, saw full-time domestic workers earn at least R4,000 per month for the first time. However, people employed in the government's expanded public works programme (EPWP) system may be paid as little as R13.97 per hour, or roughly 55% the minimum wage for everyone else.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Phillip de Wet at Fin24
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