WORKERS’ PAY
NEWS ANALYSIS: Living wage needs just as much focus as executive pay
While companies should be expected to explain the large salaries of top executives, they should equally be called on to explain how they calculate the salaries of lowest-paid workers, writes Hanna Ziady
It is time the heightened focus on executive pay gives way to serious discussion about a living wage. While companies should be expected to explain the large salaries of top executives, they should equally be called on to explain how they calculate the salaries of lowest-paid workers. Have they applied their minds to what amount might constitute a living wage, an amount that would cover the cost of housing, food, transport, education and healthcare, at the very least? Encouragingly, says PwC, discussion about a living wage is increasingly taking place in the boardrooms of South African corporations. While there is no scientific definition of what a living wage is, it is distinct from a minimum wage in that it enables a better life than a minimum wage would allow. In 1874, labour writer Lloyd Jones described a living wage as one that "will secure sufficiency of food, and some degree of personal and home comfort to the worker; not a miserable allowance to starve on". A 2014 paper by t...
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