Minimum wage: If everyone’s unhappy ...
The head of SA’s national minimum wage panel says if the plan put to government pleases no-one, he and his colleagues must have done their job well. But the R20/hour figure looks like an educated guess
Nobody can accuse Prof Imraan Valodia, who chairs SA’s national minimum wage panel, of not knowing what it feels like to earn below the minimum wage. The Wits University dean worked alongside poor construction workers in India in the mid-2000s to better understand the dynamics of low-income households. He remembers being puzzled when they pushed for a higher minimum wage since their employers were ignoring the legislated amount. They reasoned, however, that a higher legal minimum would put moral pressure on noncompliant employers to raise their meagre wages a bit too. He hopes the same thing will happen in SA if the panel’s recommendation of a R20/hour minimum wage (or R3,440/month) is accepted by government. "We need to change the discourse in SA so every worker knows they should get R20 an hour," he says. "It significantly changes the balance of power in the bargaining relationship." The introduction of a national minimum wage (NMW) provides a unique chance to address SA’s working...
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