NEVA MAKGETLA: On May Day, workers in SA will have little to celebrate
The advent of full democracy has failed to change workplace culture from before 1994
SA is about to celebrate May Day, the international workers’ day. Yet by world standards, the SA economy still offers most workers a very raw deal. That reality is central to our lamentable position as one of the world’s most unequal and divided economies. It arises, above all, from predemocracy policies that depressed pay and prospects for most workers in order to improve them for business owners, managers and professionals.
According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), in the mid-2010s the top 1% of employed people in SA got 20% of earned income. In India and China, the best-paid 1% got only 10%, and for other upper-middle-income economies the figure was even lower. The ILO also measures earnings inequality by comparing the ratio of the 10th percentile of employees, ranked by earnings, to the 90th percentile. In the mid-2010s, the average ratio internationally was 8. In SA, it was 21 in the formal sector alone, and 23 for all workers...
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