LETTER: SA’s minimum wage folly

Over and above the job losses in the mining industry to date, we can expect further losses during the latter part of 2017, when the wage demands creep in (Job losses in mining close to 50,000 mark, March 30). Furthermore, we know that the government is hellbent on implementing a national minimum wage that the Treasury tells us will lead to the loss of 700,000 jobs. It is understood that at least three-quarters of our workforce, just more than 10-million people, are covered by wage regulation and collective bargaining on an industry basis. We also know that almost 10-million people are unemployed. For any government to rush into an across-the-board minimum wage in a situation such as ours is folly. Not only do we know there will be job losses, but we also know that further jobs will not easily be created. It would make economic and moral sense to extend the minimum wage coverage to those sectors that are uncovered. This could be easily done by implementation of further sectoral deter...